Once Upon a Charmed One
by H2OGirl101
Summary: AU: Prue's story didn't end when she flew through the wall that fateful day of Shax's attack. By a twist of fate and magic, she can now be found in the cursed town of Storybrooke, Maine, under the name Patience. How did she get there? Will her sisters find her? Read on to find out! Takes place during S1 OUAT and after S8 of Charmed! Please R&R!
1. I'm Alive?

**A/N Okay so it has been forever since I've posted a story and this is my first for Charmed and OUAT, so we shall see how this goes haha.** **Some things you need to know before we start: This is an AU and some things won't match up with current OUAT or the Charmed comics. This takes place during the first season of OUAT, and so I will be attempting to keep that more so the same in flow but details, like the creation of the Dark Curse as you will see, have been altered. This also takes place after the final season of Charmed the TV series, not contingent on the comics. Also, for the purposes of plot, the timelines were matched so Charmed ended at the same time Once Upon a Time began.**

 **Enjoy! Please RR! :D**

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 **Chapter 1: I'm alive?**

 ** _In the Enchanted Forest a long time ago … well, 5 years in our time give or take …_**

A very anxious Prue Halliwell awoke in a dark chamber. It appeared she was alone, but she was experienced enough in these types of situations to know that wasn't the case, she sensed someone else's presence. Magical, certainly, the air buzzed with energy. Good or evil though, she wasn't quite sure. She sat up on the cold wooden table where she had been lying, happy to find she was restrained by nothing but her own aching body.

"Prudence Halliwell," Came a deep hiss, "Or should I call you Prue? Glad to see you're finally coming to."

"What's going on? Am I -" she began but hesitated. This didn't feel like heaven, or hell, or even the astral plane. Even though the last thing she remembered was crashing through a wall.

"Dead?" the cackling voice came from the shadows, "Not quite dearie. Not yet anyway."

Out from the shadows came a man, whose skin appeared to be made up of scales, whose attire seemed to come from another century and whose wry smile suggested he was mad. It was clear that he was a threat.

Prue immediately set up to defend herself with her magic, awaiting him to make the first move.

"Uh uh uh, we will have none of that now dearie," the strange man stated, strolling closer and waving his finger as if disciplining a child, "no, not if you ever want to see your sisters again."

"What do you know about my sisters?" Prue asked in what she hoped was a threatening tone.

"I know you all come from a very powerful line of good witches, and that is why I need you," he stated wryly.

"If you know that then you should know that they will come for me," Prue stated as bravely as she could, because, in all honesty, she was so disoriented, one minute she could swear she was dead and the next ...

"Oh, no they won't," he stated with a bone-chilling laugh, "they're too busy mourning your death!"

"But you said-" Prue began.

"Oh I know what I said, and I don't lie," he stated walking around the table, though Prue made sure to keep her eyes on him. "You died, or rather in the grand scheme of things, were meant to. That's why I was able to bring you here, it didn't mess with anything that is supposed to happen where you came from.

"It wasn't all that hard really," He continued with a smile, "I was able to manipulate your power of astral projection. They won't know it was just a projection unless they double check the casket!"

He seemed to be trying to make Prue angry, and of course she was, but more than that she was confused.

"Why go to all that trouble to bring me to the past?" Prue wondered as she began to try to think of a spell that she could use to travel to the present. The last time she did that she was with her sisters and they had to use the power of three.

"Oh this isn't just the past dearie, oh no," he smirked, "this is another world! One where magic runs freely! You are in what is commonly known as the Enchanted Forest. I brought you here because I knew you would want to go back to where you came from, and I want to go there too."

"If you can bring me here why can't you just teleport yourself there?" Prue asked.

"It's complicated dearie, calling magic to magic is easy, especially since I am familiar with the magic of this realm. Sending magic to a realm I've never been to, where magic is much more restricted, is not nearly as simple," He explained, "If there were an easier way, I'd have found it by now."

"Why do you even want to go to my world?" Prue asked.

"Does it matter?" He laughed, "Point is that I need your help, your power."

"What if I don't want to help you?" Prue asked.

"It's your choice dearie," he said with a shrug, "you can either stay here forever, leave your sisters to fend for themselves, or you can make a deal with me, you help me and I will bring you back to your sisters."

She hated that he knew how to get to her. All the demons hated the Charmed Ones, in three years they'd made quite a few enemies, including the Source of all Evil. And now that the power of three was broken ...

"I will take the deal," Prue decided after some thought, though she feared she may regret this, "but who, may I ask, am I making this deal with?"

The strange man poofed from his spot and reappeared right in front of her giving a mock bow, before stating, "Rumpelstiltskin."

 ** _Storybrooke, Maine, Present Day_**

Patience woke up to the usual sounds of her blaring alarm clock, 5 am, sounded like it was going to just be another routine day, same as the day before. And the day before that. And the day before that. And, well, ever since she could remember.

Patience sighed and continued with her daily morning routine: a refreshing shower, dressing typically business casual, making a pot of coffee, and reading the newspaper, the Storybrooke Daily Mirror, not that anything great typically happened in this town. She was pleasantly surprised when this morning's headline caught her attention, "Stranger Destroys Historic Sign." The most interesting part was the stranger, it wasn't often that Storybrooke saw visitors from outside of town.

By the time she finished up her routine though, it was only 7 am, she still had an hour before she was meant to get to work. Since Storybrooke wasn't a particularly big town, this was plenty of time. She headed out anyway, intending to walk the scenic route to Town Hall.

It was a beautiful autumn day, the sun was shining and the temperature was decent for October. At least there was one thing she could always count on changing, the weather. In Maine, they really felt the change of all the seasons, and she didn't complain. For a long time now she'd felt her life's been in a rut, so she welcomed the varying weather that forever proved that change was not only possible, but inevitable. When she reached the park Patience saw a curious figure, since it was a school day the park was usually empty, and as she approached, Patience recognized who it was. Her boss' son.

"Henry, what are you doing here?" She called out, he seemed surprised to see her.

"Patience, I-um, what are you doing here?" He replied. She was shocked to notice he wasn't carrying around his book of fairytales.

"Don't change the subject, does your mother know you're here?" She asked, though she already knew the answer. Madam Mayor would never let him skip a day of school.

"Please promise you won't tell her," Henry pleaded, "She'll kill me, especially after yesterday …"

"Explain, and I will consider it," Patience replied sternly, having caught up to him.

"I found my mom, my real mom, yesterday, in Boston!" He replied excitedly, "She brought me back here and I left my book with her, I know she's stayed."

"You ran off all the way to Boston? On your own? Do you know how dangerous that is?" Patience asked concerned, "Your mother was worried sick."

"I'm fine Patience, that's not the point, my real mom's the savior! She's going to break the curse and save me, save all of us!" Henry beamed, "Things are really going to start changing around here."

Of course, the curse. It's been all he could talk about ever since he got that book from his teacher. While Patience found it hard to truly believe, she had kept an open mind for Henry's sake, she could tell how important it was for him and knew he didn't need anyone else telling him he was crazy for his theories, he got enough of that from his adopted mother, the Mayor of Storybrooke.

"Oh really?" She answered with a smile, "Tell me, in this changing world is there any chance that people are going to want to buy more photographs?"

Patience didn't want to spend her whole life being the mayor's assistant, but of course in Storybrooke everyone has their place, so it is really tough to move around. She dreamed of someday making it as a professional photographer. For now, she had settled on it being more of a hobby, but she never left home without her equipment.

"It's gonna be so much more than that," Henry smiled, "The hard part is gonna be convincing her of who she is, and I haven't even been able to find her again yet."

"Is her name by chance Emma Swan?" Patience asked, recalling the story she had read in the paper.

"Yeah! Have you seen her?" Henry asked eagerly.

"Only read about her, she made the Daily Mirror. She crashed into the sign on the way out of town, they took her into the sheriff's station for the night. I assume she's left there by now though," Patience replied, the article itself had hinted at drunk driving but Patience figured Henry didn't need to know that, "Probably looking for you."

"You really think she's looking for me?" Henry asked excitedly.

"Of course," Patience assured, "I better get going now though, see you around!"

She began heading off in the opposite of the direction she had come in.

"And you won't tell my mom?" He called after her, not bothering to specify which one, she knew.

"You have my word," she returned.

 ** _Enchanted Forest_**

Prue jumped down from the table, but instantly felt dizzy and almost fainted. Within a second though, Rumplestiltskin was right beside her. He caught her and held her upright.

"Gotta be careful dearie, you did almost die just moments ago," He cackled.

He held her arm as she steadied herself, taking a few moments to gather all the information she had just received. With more time though she realized something was missing, something important. She put her hand straight to her chest, where her heart should be.

"I-I don't have a pulse," Prue breathed nervously.

"That's because your heart is not there," Rumpelstiltskin stated matter-of-factly, lifting his left hand, he waved it and from a puff of smoke came an enchanted heart, "It was the easiest way to save your body."

Prue gasped, it was glowing and beating, it was alive. She had so many questions, most she couldn't even put into words.

"How did you -?" Prue began to ask.

"One of the perks of the magic in this land. I saved your heart while it was still beating, fixed up your body and now here we are!" He stated waving his hand dramatically. She reached out to take it, but almost instantly he made it vanish again, "I'll be keeping that for now, for insurance. You will get it back once the task is complete."

Prue was fine standing on her own now, and she was growing more aggravated the longer time she spent with this man, even if she did technically owe him her life it was clear he was only interested in his own personal gain. His possession of her heart proved she never really had a choice in this matter.

"Then what do we have to do?" Prue asked.

"Straight to point now, I like it!" he smirked walking off to the side of the room where there was a table with a big old-looking book, "For now, you rest, build up your strength I'll show you to a room. Tonight is a total lunar eclipse, the perfect timing to perform the ritual, make the potion." Rumpelstiltskin had it all planned out, tonight everything was coming together to form the ultimate curse, the Dark Curse.

 ** _Storybrooke, Maine, 8:15 pm_**

Patience was back in her apartment for the night, doing paperwork at the kitchen table, it had been another day with the same old routine, as expected. Then suddenly a strange sound echoed throughout Storybrooke.

She went up to the window, looking out at the old clock-tower. It had been stuck at the same time since, well, since anyone could remember, and now, it was ticking!

She smiled to herself, "Maybe Henry was right, maybe things are going to start changing around here."

 **San Francisco, California Present Day**

In her silent apartment, Phoebe floated in deep meditation, just a few feet or so off the floor. It was only recently that Phoebe had regained all her powers, that is premonitions, levitation, and empathy. She'd lost them temporarily due to personal gain issues, but she didn't mind anymore, she just appreciates them much more now. It had become almost ritual to meditate in the evening, clearing her mind made it easier to access and control her powers, which was especially important with empathy.

She was nearing the end of her session when she was hit with a premonition, she gasped silently as the now familiar but always surprising shock shook through her body, and her mind filled with the vision.

"Phoebe!" Prue called out. It was a vision of 5 years ago, the day Prue was killed by Shax the demonic assassin, she had no clue that Phoebe was not upstairs, but stuck in the underworld with Leo, who turned out to be her sister's only hope. Seconds later Shax threw Prue through the wall. "Prue!" Phoebe couldn't help but scream, pulling herself out of the vision.

"Ouch," Phoebe complained as she came out of the vision and fell out of her levitation.

 ** _Enchanted Forest_**

Prue followed Rumpelstiltskin out into the forest, never taking her eyes off of him, mostly because she had no idea where she was or where they were going and this forest looked easy to get lost and, well, even devoured in. It seemed they had been walking forever by the time they entered a clearing. Prue could easily tell that this is where Rumpelstiltskin meant to create this potion, in the center there was already a giant pot, resembling a cauldron, hanging just above a roaring fire, and up through the trees the full moon undergoing the eclipse was clearly visible.

"So, what do we do now?" Prue asked curiously as the Dark One rifled through his big old book intently.

He didn't answer at first but simply poofed away the book, added a few seemingly random ingredients, nothing Prue recognized, to the point the substance inside began to bubble more furiously, Prue followed him to the cauldron and assumed a position so the cauldron was between them.

He grabbed both her hands, while she fought the urge to pull away from his cold, scaly touch, before speaking, "As soon as the eclipse starts I will begin the ritual, all you must do is keep your focus, your energy, and your power on the potion, on returning to where you have come from, the source of your magic. It is in your best interest."

Again, Prue had many questions that the mysterious man left no time for, because just as he finished speaking the eclipse began. He held a tighter grip on her hands and began chanting, she attempted to follow, figure out what he was saying, but it was a language she had never heard before, probably of this land, and he spoke too quickly for her to catch on. So instead she closed her eyes and tried to do as he asked, focusing on her power, her sisters, and home.

What began as a slight tug, a small feeling in her hands of the flow of power, his and hers, mixing together, soon became an unbearable pull. It came to the point she didn't even have to focus on her power, but could easily feel it draining from her into this potion, and she grew frightened. She tried to pull away but Rumpelstiltskin's grip was too tight. A sort of smoke of all the power whipped around them like a mini tornado they were trapped in the middle of, and there seemed to be no escape. She could literally feel his dark magic closing in around her, she felt like she was suffocating.

However, all this happened in a matter of minutes, and then it was over as quickly as it started. The smoke cleared out, or rather seemed to have been absorbed into the cauldron, Rumpelstiltskin cackled in delight as Prue struggled to catch her breath, opening her eyes only to find she still couldn't see. In all that mess the fire under the cauldron had gone out. The lunar eclipse continued above them.

"It is complete," Rumpelstiltskin stated with finality gazing into the cauldron. While Prue feared she had just been his assistant in something awful, she was still thankful that he didn't let go of her hands before leading her to a seat on a nearby tree stump, and with a snap of his fingers lit up a bunch of torches surrounding the clearing.

"Take your time dearie, big potions like this can take a lot out of a good witch such as yourself," He stated, "Dark magic, especially around here, can take quite a toll on anyone around when it is in use."

"You seem fine," Prue wheezed having caught her breath and doing her best not to just collapse right there. She was exhausted.

"Well you see that's because I am what's known here as the Dark One," He smirked, "I am what contains this dark magic. It cannot hurt me."

Prue was surprised as she watched him pour the entire potion into a medium-sized vial. She was sure there had been much more but somehow it had condensed. He stared at it gleefully.

"So that's it then? You give me my heart then I can go back to my sisters?" Prue asked cautiously after quite a bit of silent watching, "Do we just have to drink it or something?"

"Not quite, it isn't finished yet," Rumpelstiltskin stated, not taking his eyes from the vial, "There are a few more ingredients that will be rather … difficult to get at the moment. Might as well get comfortable here dearie."

Prue wasn't in any position to argue at the moment, but she made a mental note. This wasn't the end of the conversation, she had to get back to her sisters as soon as possible.

 ** _Storybrooke, Maine, The Next Day_**

Patience woke up to the same old vexing alarm clock. Still groggy, she blindly reached out to grab it. She hadn't even felt her hand hit the snooze before she heard it hit the wall and crack. That was enough to really get her up.

"Oh shit shit shit,"Patience mumbled as she went over to the wall to pick it up, the clock was busted and there was a mark on the wall, "What the hell?"

She tried to brush off the weirdness of the situation, she reasoned that in her tired and irritated state she must have just hit the clock with more force than intended. She was just stronger than she'd thought, apparently. Either way, she had a mess to clean up. She tossed the alarm clock, making a mental note to get a new one. The mark on the wall was tougher to get out, and it did leave a dent. Oh well, a little room rearrangement and it wasn't even noticeable.

She was just about ready to put it all aside, but throughout her whole morning routine strange things continued happening. One accidental hand wave towards the bathroom's medicine cabinet and all its contents tumbled into the sink. When she was getting dressed for work she barely reached into her closet before, by some strange force, the clothes she intended to wear came straight to her hand. And the clothes surrounding those wound up all over the floor. By the time she got to read the paper, she wasn't at peace for long because one more accidental movement and her mug of hot coffee crashed into the wall.

"I must be dreaming ... Or going crazy," Patience stated in wonder, as she finished cleaning up. Maybe her wish for things to change had been taken too seriously. She finally decided it was best to head out, and avoid destroying more of her apartment. It was about time anyway. She decided to minimize any unnecessary hand movements for the time being and resolved to take the time for her lunch break to figure out what the heck was going on.

While she was making her way to work she noticed a blonde woman she didn't recognize, who looked confused. She was crossing the street towards Patience. Just then, Patience noticed a car cross the nearest intersection speeding, it didn't look like the driver was slowing down, and it was heading straight for the woman. Patience ran to the curb and reached out her hand to the woman. The same mysterious force as earlier pulled the woman's hand the last few inches between them, Patience gripped her hand and pulled her back to the curb just before the car sped past, out of control. With another wave of her free hand she slowed it to a stop just before hitting a pole, the driver looked fast asleep at the wheel. She wasn't the only one to witness the scene and was sure she saw someone dial 911, so she turned her attention to the woman, who looked startled, to say the least.

"Are you alright?" Patience asked her.

"You saved my life," She stated bewildered, catching her breath.

"I just did what anyone else would have," Patience shrugged and nervously laughed it off before changing the subject, "Are you new here?"

"How can you tell?" The woman replied with a small smile.

"Storybrooke isn't very big, and we don't get many visitors," Patience returned, and then it dawned on her, and before she could stop herself she blurted, "Are you Henry's birth mother?"

To her surprise the woman didn't look too shocked, "Wow, word does travel fast here."

"I'm so sorry, that was incredibly rude of me. It's just, I'm a friend of your son," Patience explained and extended her hand in greeting, "My name is Patience."

"Emma," Emma replied shaking her hand.

"So where are you heading to? I mean you look a little lost," Patience asked.

"Actually I am, do you know where I could find Dr. Hopper's office?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, it's not far, and on my way. I could walk you there if you'd like," Patience replied.

"Yeah thanks, that would really help," Emma smiled, and they began walking together.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, why do you want to see Dr. Hopper?" Patience asked curiously.

"I'm worried about Henry," Emma stated bluntly, "I know what you're probably thinking, I've known him for less than two days, I'm not his real mother, this is none of my business-"

Patience put a hand on her shoulder to stop her rambling, "Emma, it's okay, you don't have to explain yourself to me, I understand," Patience smiled encouragingly, "If I had given up a child who came to me 10 years later asking me for my help, I would be concerned too."

"So how do you know Henry? Teacher? Counselor?" Emma asked.

"No no, nothing like that," Patience smiled, "I'm the mayor's assistant, I see Henry around the office all the time. His mother likes to keep him close."

"So you work with Regina?" Emma asked cautiously.

"Yeah, but don't worry, everything you tell me is confidential. I won't tell Regina," Patience assured, then laughed, "A lot of people in Storybrooke are afraid to say certain things around me because they think I'm like a spy for Regina or something."

"Since I've gotten here it seems like the whole town is afraid of Regina," Emma stated.

"Yeah, she holds a lot of power here and can be pretty intimidating," Patience agreed.

"Maybe that's why Henry believes she's the evil queen," Emma smirked.

"He told you about the fairytales?" Patience smiled.

"Yup, how everyone here is a character straight from his book of fairytales. I don't know how he makes this stuff up," Emma stated.

"Maybe he isn't making it up," Patience suggested offhandedly.

"You believe him?" Emma asked surprised.

"I believe anything's possible," Patience replied, thinking of her wild morning, "When his own mother, I mean Regina, acts like he's crazy or delusional, I try to keep an open mind, for Henry's sake, and I'd suggest you do the same. Who knows what he might reveal to you if you just take the time to listen."

They stopped just outside the therapist's office.

"Here we are," Patience gestured to the small office building, "Hope to see you around Emma."

Patience headed off, farther down the street to Town Hall, as Emma headed into Dr. Hopper's office.

 ** _San Francisco, California_**

"Piper?" Phoebe called out after making her way into the Halliwell manor.

"Attic!" She heard in response. She wasn't exactly in high spirits that day, her thoughts kept going back to her vision the night before, she still had no idea what it meant, but her spirits dropped even more when she came to the attic. She found Piper blowing out candles arranged in a circle. Phoebe couldn't keep her empathic power from picking up on the disappointment in the room. She was reminded of exactly what day it was. She mentally, figuratively, cursed herself, how could she forget?

"Any luck?" Phoebe asked quietly as she slowly approached her sister.

"No more than usual," Piper said bitterly, "It's been five years, you'd think she'd check in by now. She always used to check in."

Phoebe knew she was referring to their oldest sister Prue, who had been killed in that demon attack 5 years ago today. The same that had been recalled in her vision. They had yet to be able to summon her spirit despite the countless times they'd contacted their mother and grams in the spirit world.

"Think it's still too soon?" Phoebe asked almost sarcastically. It was always the only answer they got from those they could contact, but at this point, it really just didn't make sense.

"5 years, too soon? Doubt it. I think there's something they're not telling us," Piper commented angrily, wiping away a few stray tears, "Not that there's anything we can do about that."

It has crossed Phoebe's mind that maybe they couldn't make contact simply because Prue didn't want to, but that was something Phoebe just couldn't believe. Sure, she and Prue had their differences in the past but the three sisters had grown really close, particularly after they had discovered they were descendants of a long line of witches, with powers of their own.

"Have you spoken to Grams recently?" Phoebe asked.

"No, she usually answers when I call for Prue, but no one answered this time," Piper explained, "All I really want to know at this point is if she is alright, and I'm finding it harder to take Gram's word for it."

This was news to Phoebe.

"What do you think's going on?" Phoebe wondered, she had never considered that Prue's soul might be in danger.

"I don't know," Piper sighed, "I mean, I know if it was anything we could help with they would have told us, but I just get the feeling there is much more about the spirit realm than they let us know or that we could possibly understand. No matter how many times we temporarily die."

"Sorry I'm late guys, what did I miss?" Paige asked as she orbed in with a flurry of white and blue lights right next to Piper.

"Nothing much, where do you guys wanna go tonight?" Piper asked, apparently not wanting to dwell on the sensitive topic any longer.

"How about that restaurant by the bay, Quake?" Paige suggested.

"No way, you know I was a manager there right?" Piper asked leading the way out of the attic, Paige close behind as they got into a conversation about Piper's old job at Quake, which she had for a year before she opened her own club P3, all before she even knew Paige existed.

Phoebe followed, but lagged, her thoughts spinning. Originally she had thought her vision meant a returning of Shax. Sure they had vanquished him, but demons had a bad habit of not staying dead. Now, however, she considered it might have less to do with the terrible demonic assassin and more to do with her sister. What if her soul really is in danger? What if now there was something they could do to help?

 ** _Enchanted Forest_**

Rumpelstiltskin stood alone in his private study. On the table in front of him sat a delicately carved box and within the box lay a living, beating, enchanted heart. The heart of his guest, Prue Halliwell, who was currently fast asleep. The Dark One made sure of that.

"You've been a great help Miss Halliwell, and I do regret what I must do now," He spoke to her heart, as if she stood before him, "But I can't risk others finding out where you're from. You just stand out too much, and it could be years before I can get Regina to enact this curse. Fear not though, I never break a deal, I will return you to your sisters ... Eventually."

With that, he sprinkled a magical dust over the heart and began to silently chant an ancient spell, a spell that was actually the precursor to the dark curse. For it allowed the enactor to erase and replace the memories of their victim, alter their reality.

Prue Halliwell didn't fit in with the fairytale scheme. Lady Prudence, daughter of a Duke, who ran to Rumpelstiltskin for help when her magical gift became too much, has lived with him since, and whose family and friends were subsequently killed in a terrible, random, conveniently frequent dragon attack, will.

 ** _San Francisco, California_**

Phoebe once again floated cross-legged in meditation, this time above her bed in case she fell out again. It was a lot harder to quiet her thoughts and clear her mind though. She couldn't shake the thought that Prue's soul may be in danger, may have been in danger since the moment she died, and there's nothing she can do to help her. Unless she had another premonition. One that could prove her wrong, or prove her right and give her an idea as to what exactly that danger is.

In hopes of increasing the chance of a vision, Phoebe was surrounded by a circle made up of pictures of Prue, including a copy of the one of Prue with Piper and herself taken by Grams not long before she had died, as well as some of Prue's things: her camera, a top Phoebe had adopted (though most of her clothes they had boxed up and eventually given away a year or so ago), and her antique jewelry box.

Since she had gotten her power she had worked on purposefully having a premonition. It got easier as time went on, but still, it worked best with a clear or directly focused mind. So instead of emptying her mind, she focused all her thoughts on what she remembered from that day.

Following her intuition, she reached for the photograph of her and her sisters, the moment her hand touched the frame she got the vision she was hoping for.

It started the same as before, but Phoebe let it play out. It only confirmed her suspicion that the flash she had gotten before was trying to tell her more. She watched reluctantly but determined as both her sisters flew through the wall. Shax left, his mission complete. She waited. Waited for her sister's spirit to exit her body moments before Leo orbed himself and her back to the manor, too late for Prue but just in time for Piper. Because that's what must've happened. She wasn't surprised to see Death appear on the scene. First, he took the soul of the innocent, the doctor they had been trying to protect, leading him to the astral plane and beyond. Then he returned. She caught sight of his list, the top read "Prudence Halliwell" and the next line "Piper Halliwell" but soon after a strange woman appeared next to him in a burst of flames. She seemed familiar, evil.

 _Charon_ , a soul collector who targeted good witches to ferry their souls to hell, she had targeted the sisters before, using a revenge-seeking ghost. Death barely seemed to acknowledge her presence, it was hard to tell how he felt about her, although it was rare for him to actually show any emotion in general. Phoebe was worried though, was he going to just let her take Prue's soul?

But something was wrong. Death reached out his hand to Prue, but her soul did not leave her body. He double checked his list, Prue's name had disappeared. He turned to Piper, but that is when Leo and Phoebe orbed in, in time to save her. Death was unfazed, both names off his list and he left, his job done. Charon left in an angry huff, obviously frustrated she was leaving without a soul. And then Phoebe was pulled from the vision.

It didn't make sense though, or rather, she couldn't make sense of it. Prue had died, right? Leo couldn't save her, and yet Death hadn't taken her and neither had Charon. What did that mean? What had happened to Prue's soul?

* * *

That night a familiar stranger visited the manor while everyone was asleep. She didn't know where she was or how she got there, but the place seemed quite familiar. She wandered the first floor, quietly, aware she was in someone's home. The kitchen, the living room, the conservatory; all was where she expected them to be, like she'd been there before. More than once. No matter how hard she tried though, she couldn't remember a time she had been there. Perhaps this was a dream? Perhaps she'd dreamed of this place before, it's easy to forget a dream. In the kitchen she found a newspaper, it said she was in San Francisco, California. She shrugged, she had always thought about moving out, leaving her current residence in Storybrooke, Maine, though she never, until now, dreamed of moving all the way to the west coast. She was wary to make too much noise but her curiosity about the house was still peaked, so she decided to explore further. Climbing the stairs she made her way carefully to the attic. One thing stood out about the rest of your average attic clutter, a thick book that stood atop a podium in the center of the room. She recognized the symbol on the front and traced it out; a triquetra, she'd seen it when she had previously done research on her newfound abilities, it came up particularly on sites relating to witchcraft. Cautiously intrigued she opened the book and began to read it, it was fascinating. She wondered if it were real, but it seemed too familiar and felt too powerful to not be. Before she knew it morning light was pouring through the attic window, and she was pulled from the room, waking up in her very familiar bedroom just in time to hear the very familiar sound of her alarm clock, very pleased with the dream she still held fresh in her memory.

* * *

 **A/N Well that's it, hope you enjoyed! Please review! And yes, the name Patience was borrowed from the Charmed comics ;). The current plan is to post on the 1st of every month.**


	2. Strangers

**A/N Here it is! A few days early because I've got a busy week ahead, but you can think of it as a little early Halloween present :) Admittedly, it is a shorter chapter, but it introduces a couple new key characters I hope you like!**

 **For clarity: "Prue" will be used to refer to the Prue we all know and love and "Prudence" will be used to refer to Prue while under Rumpelstiltskin's curse in the Enchanted Forest.**

 **Disclaimer: Sorry I didn't put this on the first chapter, but, in case there's any doubt, I do not own Charmed or Once Upon a Time.**

 **Thank you to everyone who has added this story to their follows and favorites!** **Special thanks to Fluehatraya for your review, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And I hope you all enjoy the story moving forward!**

 **Now on to what we've all been waiting for:**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Strangers**

 _ **San Francisco, CA**_

Phoebe had woken the next morning, reluctantly and yet gratefully, to the sound of her 5 AM alarm. She'd had a nightmare. It consisted of a series of horrific visions, each surrounding her sister Prue. A crazy-eyed man, a glowing and beating human heart, a dark forest, creatures she didn't know how to describe, a dungeon, a deep dark fog consuming everything. She couldn't say how these related to her sister, but in her dream, she just knew they did, and despite being horrified she felt she needed to see more. Even now though, mere minutes from waking up, the details of the dream were fading and Phoebe was wondering if it was really just that, a dream.

None of it made sense and she never forgot visions this easily. She dismissed it as a subconscious manifestation of her fears, but that didn't help her uneasiness of the situation. This was all getting to be more than she could handle alone, she knew she had to discuss it with someone. Someone who would understand and be able to help. She called Paige and set up a breakfast meeting in an hour, it was short notice but thankfully she wasn't busy and agreed. Phoebe felt guilty about not including Piper, but she really didn't want to open up old wounds until she had a better grasp on what exactly these visions meant.

She took a shower, got dressed, and did her hair and makeup, so when Paige orbed in to pick her up, she was ready. They went to a small cafe, each ordering a light breakfast. As they ate, Phoebe relayed her visions to Paige.

"Oh my God, what do you think it means?" Paige finally asked.

"Honestly, I think it means that something's wrong, she's in trouble, and now there's something we can do to help," Phoebe stated, there were many logical problems with this theory, the greatest of which being that this all happened 5 years ago, and they hadn't heard anything about this even being a possibility from those who should know, i.e. the Elders, Higher Beings, or even Grams or their mother.

"Then we've gotta tell Piper," Paige replied.

"I don't know, I mean, minus the fact my visions have never lead us wrong, this sounds crazy, right?" Phoebe confided,"I don't want to go opening that can of worms with Piper if this all turns out to be some trick or misinterpretation. I don't want to act on anything until we have more of an idea of how we could. Sorry, I know this is a big secret, but I just needed someone to talk about it with. If what we've always believed had happened, hadn't, I need help getting to the truth."

"I'm with you sister," Paige agreed, not liking the secrecy but understanding Phoebe's reasoning. Prue was her sister too after all, and if there was any chance she was in danger, she wanted to help.

"Thanks, sweetie," Phoebe smiled appreciatively, then she caught a glance at the clock on the wall, "Ooh and can you also give me an orb to work? I can't believe it's already a quarter to eight!"

"Paige's orbing taxi at your service," Paige joked with a mock salute.

 _ **Storybrooke, ME**_

Patience was actually feeling particularly good for once. Not that she typically felt bad, more like she didn't feel much of anything. She'd had a good dream, woke up before her alarm, and used her newfound abilities to cut her morning routine time in half! She was glad to be getting some control over her new powers. So instead of going straight to work, she decided to give her uncle a visit. She knew by now he'd be setting up shop.

Her uncle, Mr. Gold, ran a pawnshop, but there was much more to him than that. He's a very powerful person in Storybrooke, second (debatably) only to Regina, the mayor. He owned most of the town, including the apartment Patience currently rented. He had reached out to her, coincidentally, soon after her husband had passed away. Before then, the only family she'd known was her grandmother who raised her in New York City, but she too had passed away a few years prior. With no ties in New York anymore, she decided to start fresh with her uncle in Storybrooke, Maine, a far cry from the big city. He got her an apartment, helped her with any lasting debts she had had, and even set her up with her current job as Mayoral Assistant. She owed him her life.

"Patience dear, so nice to see you, would you like some coffee?" Mr. Gold said, welcoming her.

"Yes, thank you, that would be great," Patience smiled following her uncle to the back room where he poured her a mug, "I hope you've been doing well?"

"Of course, everything's going very smoothly," He smirked, "And yourself? Visiting this early is hardly routine for you."

"Breaking routine for once, and it feels good!" Patience smiled, "Things have been changing ever since Emma Swan came to Storybrooke. Hope she sticks around, though I worry that's unlikely."

"On the contrary, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of Ms. Swan," Gold stated knowingly.

"You mean Regina hasn't scared her off yet? Yesterday Regina had me make the call to Granny's to have her kicked out, I can't imagine where she'd even be staying," Patience wondered.

"I'm sure she'll make arrangements, she's made some friends in a few short days, I heard Mary Margaret had bailed her out of jail," Gold relayed, "Something tells me Ms. Swan isn't going down without a fight."

"I just hope Henry doesn't get hurt in the middle of all this," Patience contemplated.

"That boy is tougher than he seems," Gold stated.

"Sure hope you're right," Patience smiled, "Hey, what's this?"

A particular book, stacked seemingly innocuously atop at least ten with similar features, caught her eye. It was a rough, brown, leathery journal. It seemed very familiar.

"Just some old donated books I've been meaning to go through. You can take a look if you'd like," Gold encouraged.

Patience picked up the book and flipped through it. It appeared like your average journal, lightweight and filled with handwritten entries, but it was much more than that. The first page was distinguished by a hand-drawn triquetra and the initials "P. H.", the bottom corner was ripped off. Many pages following that were filled with spells and potions, some she even recognized directly from the Book of Shadows she had skimmed in her dream the previous night.

"How much do you want for it?" Patience asked, having seen enough to know she needed to see more.

"You can have it, I don't imagine it's worth very much anyway," Gold replied with a sly smile.

"Thank you Gold," Patience replied returning his smile then checked her watch, "Well I better get going, see you later!"

 _ **San Francisco, CA**_

"Thanks again for giving me a ride home Piper," Phoebe said as she was tightening her seatbelt.

"How did you even get to work without a car?" Piper asked.

"I had breakfast with Paige, she orbed me" Phoebe explained.

"What's she up to today, anyway?" Piper asked as she drove them out of the parking lot.

"She called me earlier, she got a new charge today but has been having trouble tracking her down," Phoebe explained, "She thinks she's in danger."

"Big danger? Does she need us?" Piper asked concerned.

"Hmm, she didn't say," Phoebe contemplated, "I'm sure if she does need us, she'd call. Or we'd find her. We've grown quite a knack these past few years for finding trouble."

"You got that right," Piper replied.

"Are you busy today? Hope I didn't cut into anything too important." Phoebe said.

"Oh no, I am actually gloriously not busy today and enjoying every minute of it. I was just home with Leo and the boys. I'm actually happy with the absence of a demon of the week." Piper smiled, "And what about you? You're done with work early."

"I've gotten so used to writing in pressing time, I can't slow down! I've caught up on all my emails and enough letters for the month" Phoebe laughed, "I can't believe we actually- … Piper freeze time now!"

They had just reached an intersection, stopped because the light was red, when Phoebe had a premonition, so quick Piper hardly even noticed her pause.

"What? Why?" Piper screamed back but, trusting her sister, did it anyway. There were only two cars at the intersection, Piper's and one speeding across the intersection in front of them, at least it had been speeding until Piper used her power to freeze it in place. Thankfully it wasn't a busy time of day, nobody around but just out of range of Piper's powers. But still, at any moment a person could happen upon the scene and the sisters' lives would be ruined just as they were starting to look brighter. Piper waited impatiently for her sister's explanation.

"Look!" Phoebe pointed to the front of the other car. When Piper froze time, she had noticed no one but the guy in the car, and yet standing frozen in front of the car was another man, dressed like he had just come from a renaissance fair. Ridiculous for the times but at the same time the getup was probably suited to medieval royalty.

"That guy wasn't there before!" Piper stated.

"I know! He just appeared!" Phoebe said.

"Do you think he blinked?" Piper asked.

"Don't only warlocks do that?" Phoebe returned.

"Warlocks freeze too," Piper stated, slapping Phoebe, playfully, on the shoulder, "Phoebe you made me save a warlock!"

"No, he's not alone, look!" Phoebe pointed again as something else became apparent about the man, there was something, someone, wriggling in his arms, "Only good witches don't freeze right?"

But before Piper had a chance to answer, remind her that powerful upper-level demons also did not freeze, Phoebe got out of the car.

Phoebe ran to the warlock, intent on saving the poor witch he'd captured. That's gotta be why she had the premonition right? To save the witch. As she approached, a little girl, maybe a few years old, had wriggled free from his arms. She wasn't afraid, but she was probably too young to understand the danger she was in. When she saw Phoebe she smiled and giggled, toddling towards her and waving.

Phoebe scooped up the tyke in her arms and ran back to the car, needing to get there before Piper's freeze ran out and time started up again.

"It's ok sweetie you're safe now," Phoebe cooed, holding the girl close on her lap as she reclaimed the front passenger seat.

Piper unfroze the scene, but though the warlock had been right in front of the car, the car sped by without impedance.

"Where did he go?" Piper asked searching the intersection.

"You guys found her! She's so young!" A familiar yet unexpected voice came from the backseat.

"Paige?" Piper asked, knowing the answer.

"You found my charge," Paige replied as Phoebe handed her the little girl. She promptly buckled her into Wyatt's car seat.

Just then, the man from the street also appeared in the car, on the other side of the car seat."Warlock!" Phoebe cried.

"Warlock?!" Paige asked/yelled while Piper froze the guy before he could do or say anything.

"Papa!" The little girl said in excitement at the man's presence.

"Papa?!" The sisters wondered in unison.

"That's it, we are taking this fun little situation to the manor, we cannot fit anyone else in this car," Piper stated.

"Wait we're taking him to the manor? Do you think that's safe?" Phoebe asked.

"Safer than trying to figure this all out in the middle of the street," Piper retorted.

 _ **Enchanted Forest (4 Years Ago)**_

Prudence had lived comfortably and trained rigorously with Rumplestiltskin for over a year. She'd gotten into a regular routine with him. Every day for at least a few hours she'd work on her powers, strength and control, and sometimes Rumpelstiltskin would mentor her from old magic books and she'd started picking up on some ancient languages. Of course, he limited what he taught her and kept the darker magic for his sessions with Regina. He didn't want to show Prudence anything that might scare her off or jog her memory.

Either way, with his aid and the greater access to magic, Prudence was able to develop her powers far beyond their strength when she had first come to the Enchanted Forest.

In return for living and training with him, she kept up the mansion and ran errands to town for him regularly. This particular day was no different, just a weekly run for groceries and potion ingredients. She'd memorized his list and carried nothing but a small bag with his allotted gold coins. The town was small and she recognized nearly everyone, she politely waved to those who initiated it, but most were wary of her, her connection to the Dark One was well known. Which is why she was surprised to find a stranger in town that day who went out of his way to get her attention.

She saw him on a corner, where two dirt roads cross, surrounded by a crowd of children, putting on a show. He was dirty and unshaven, she pitied him, she figured he was poor and the act was for money. Perhaps he traveled far and wide with this act in hopes for some change. He didn't seem so lucky here, those kids wouldn't be able to provide much, if anything, but he still seemed pretty happy. Intrigued she stuck around the outer edge to watch.

His only prop was a small ball. She watched as he closed his right hand around it, then opened both hands to reveal the ball in his left instead. Then he closed both hands and opened them once again showing them empty, one of the kids found it in their pocket. The children were amazed, Prudence wondered if it was actually innocent sleight of hand, as it seemed, or more. His act finished, the children began to disperse. Prudence started to leave.

"Did you enjoy the show, miss?" He called out, grabbing her attention.

"It was quite entertaining," She acknowledged, "I haven't seen you here before."

"I haven't been here long," He explained, "Just passing through."

"Then I hope you enjoy your stay," she replied, "I best get going though, I have some errands to run. Perhaps I will see you around before you go."

"Yes perhaps," He smiled, tipping his hat, and she headed off in her original direction. But suddenly she realized her bag felt off, like the weight had changed. When she opened it the gold coins were missing! In their place was a single ball, the same as the magicians. Angrily, she turned back quickly, but, before her eyes, the man disappeared into thin air! She was shocked but caught him out of the corner of her eye running on the opposite side of a row of shops not too far off. She smirked and astralled in front of him, his surprise gave her the advantage, she quickly, telekinetically, pulled the gold coins he still had in his hand to her own, replacing them with the ball.

"How?" He asked clearly baffled.

"These aren't mine, they belong to a very powerful person you may know as the Dark One. Believe me, you don't want to get on his bad side, and neither do I," She stated, "Don't try that again."

He nodded, looking impressed. Prudence left to finish her errands, half hoping she would never see this stranger again, and half wishing she'd gotten his name.

 _ **San Francisco, CA**_

"Are you getting anything from them, Phoebe?" Piper asked as they approached the manor.

"Him, no, because he's frozen, and it's a bit hard to read the little girl, her emotions are kind of everywhere but mostly happy, relieved, and comfortable. I mean, she's with a bunch of strangers and she's not phased. I think she was looking for us, in fact, I think she knows us," Phoebe informed them, returning the girls wave and smile.

"Sweetie my name is Paige, that's Piper and that's Phoebe, what is your name?" Paige asked, pointing out Piper and Phoebe in turn while the girl gazed around, apparently taking it all in. She had short dark brown hair, about shoulder length, icy blue eyes, and she was wearing a pink dress that, like the man's clothes, looked like they had come from another era.

"Trixie," the girl replied looking up at Paige. Then she looked back at the man and grabbed something that was sticking out of his pocket. It was a ripped piece of light brown paper. She handed it to Paige, it read "1329 Prescott Street San Francisco, California."

"Uh guys, they were definitely looking for us," Paige stated.

"What makes you say that?" Phoebe asked.

"He has a note with the address to the manor," Paige handed the parchment up front to Phoebe.

"Well that's not creepy," Phoebe commented sarcastically as she analyzed it.

"Since when did warlocks, or any magical being for that matter, use addresses? Isn't the manor just 'that place above the nexus where the Charmed Ones live' to them?" Piper sighed, pulling into the driveway of the manor. It's true they all used to live there together, but Phoebe and Paige had moved out not too long ago.

"Paige, would you mind orbing us to the attic? Leo's home with the boys and I don't want to freak them out until we know what's going on here," Piper asked.

"No problem," Paige replied, and after they got out of the car and locked it, Piper and Phoebe supporting the strange man, Paige orbed them all up to the attic.

Once there, Paige orbed the crystals in a circle around the guy, effectively caging him in case he was a threat, before Piper unfroze him so they could get some answers.

"What do you think you're doing? Where have you taken me?" He asked, surprised and angry. He tried to walk towards Trixie but the cage shocked him back and he grew angrier, "You better bring her no harm, you have no idea who you are dealing with!"

"Excuse me, mister, I don't think you have any idea who you are dealing with," Piper countered.

"You came looking for the Charmed Ones. Well, you've found us. This is 1329 Prescott Street," Phoebe explained.

"Oh, you're the Charmed Ones? Sorry then, but I thought you were supposed to be good, what is with this strange barrier?" He asked.

"You blinked," Phoebe stated.

"Excuse me?" He asked confused.

"In our experience, only warlocks blink from one place to another. Warlocks are evil," Paige further explained.

"I'm not a warlock," He stated defensively.

"Well then what are you?" Phoebe asked.

"I'm … oh, what was it? … a good witch!" He replied.

"Yeah no, nice try buddy. Good witches don't freeze." Piper replied, "That is how we know Trixie here is a good witch and why we even bothered bringing you here in the first place."

"Okay, you got me," He said putting his hands up, "I'm not a good witch. My wife was a good witch and that is why our daughter is as well. I've had powers since I can remember, to teleport myself and manipulate time. I don't know what I am, but I promise I mean no harm. My wife is missing, Trixie gets premonitions and that is why we were looking for you. We need your help to find her."

"You can time travel?" Piper asked, suspicious. That was incredibly rare innate ability, in fact, the only being they had ever come across who could do that was the higher level demon Tempus.

"No, more like I can manipulate the flow of time," He explained, "Slow it down or speed it up."

"What's with the getup?" Paige asked, changing the subject, gesturing to his clothes.

"Well, it is kind of a long, hard to believe story," He said calmly sitting crossed-legged in the cage. In a puff of purple smoke Trixie teleported into his lap, "Sorry, she gets that power from me."

The sisters decided not to react to that, their curiosity getting the better of them.

"We've seen so many things, trust me there's nothing we'd have trouble believing," Paige assured.

"But just so you know, we will be able to tell if you're lying. If this is all some ruse to get to us you will regret it," Piper threatened, cueing Phoebe in to use her empathic power to read his emotions. She should truly be able to tell if he is sincere or not. Piper was hesitant to trust him.

"Okay," He began, "Well my name is Darien and you've already met Trixie. We're not from here, from this world. We come from a land known as the Enchanted Forest …"

 _ **Enchanted Forest (A Few Days Ago)**_

Darien stood alone in his study, flipping furiously through a particular brown, leather-bound book. Certain there was nothing useful and yet certain he must be missing something.

"There must be something, there has to be!" He stated angrily to no one, clearly distressed, "I have to find her…"

A small knock came to the door before a child walked in.

"Papa," Trixie addressed.

"Any luck my sweet?" He asked sweeping her off her feet, holding her so she was eye level with him.

She shook her head no sadly, around her neck she wore a heart trinket necklace. The same that he had gifted her mother years ago, and that had recently been gifted to Trixie. She gripped the trinket tightly, he had hoped it would help her get a premonition of her mother, who had been missing a couple days now.

"Mama?" She asked hopefully.

He was about to respond, try to comfort her, when a new figure appeared in the room in a red haze.

"Mama!" Trixie smiled, he set her down so she could run over to her mother, who smiled, picked her up and hugged her close.

Her clothes were torn and dirty. She appeared unharmed, though he was not fooled, this was only a projection of her that would not reflect any physical afflictions. He was very happy she was alive, but he could see in her eyes she did not bring good news.

"The curse is coming," she stated as they closed the distance between them.

"Soon, I know," he agreed, "But there's still time, we can still get together, just tell me where you are, where has she taken you?"

"No," she paused and there were tears glistening in her eyes, "There's no time, you have to go without me. The curse is coming _now_."

She spoke calmly for the sake of Trixie but the urgency of the situation was reflected in her eyes and, after kissing Trixie's forehead and whispering comforting words in her ear, she passed the little girl back to him.

"Just tell me where you are, we can teleport, the spell and potion we've put together, it can work!" He argued.

"I don't know where I am, and there's no guarantee that spell would have worked, we didn't test it," She returned, "Please, you have to go now. The plan hasn't changed: find my sisters, find the town, break the curse."

She kissed him on the lips gently, he could feel her tears on his cheeks, or maybe those were his own. She hugged them both for a moment before backing away, looking the two up and down hoping to burn the image in her memory, knowing well that in a matter of hours, maybe minutes, she wouldn't remember them at all.

"Mama," Trixie whimpered.

"Prue," Darien pleaded one last time, resigned knowing she was right, as usual.

Her last words "I love you" were barely above a whisper as her projection faded away in a red haze.

 _ **San Francisco, CA**_

"...using our power of teleportation we were able to escape before the curse reached our house but my wife wasn't as lucky. As far as we know, the curse brought the residents of the Enchanted Forest here, somewhere at sometime, where they've been frozen, stuck in a time loop, since then, with their memories constructed by the Evil Queen, who enacted the curse," the man who had introduced himself as Darien explained.

"So you want us to break the curse?" Phoebe asked. The story sounded quite outlandish but they had of course dealt with time loops before, and Phoebe hadn't detected any deception, though it did feel like he was withholding some information. She particularly noticed he withheld from using his wife's name, but that really wasn't their business and was beside the point, so she chose to ignore it.

"I want you to help me find out where my wife is. We can take it from there," He asserted, "I haven't been here long, but this world is quite confusing … And big."

"No kidding, is there any way to narrow down the search? Do you know what state? Country? Continent?" Paige queried.

"I don't know what you mean, though I don't think it would be that far? If you cannot help just tell me now, we are wasting time," He stated urgently.

"If your daughter had a premonition leading you here, we can help," Piper stated, she was apprehensive but had no reason not to trust this man, whatever he is. Since Trixie had teleported through the crystal cage barrier she knew he could've teleported out at any point, but he didn't. Plus, Phoebe gave no sign that she felt anything off about them, Piper was convinced, they were legit innocents. She kicked away one of the crystals bringing down the cage.

"I have to put together dinner for Leo and the boys. Since you don't have anywhere to go you can stay here for the time being," Piper directed to Darien, "Phoebe, Paige, are you staying for dinner?"

"Henry's working late anyway so why not," Paige conceded, "I'll help you with dinner."

"Yeah if you don't mind, I'd like to get started on this," Phoebe said, "Scrying might be the easy fix here, at least it's worth a shot, and I can do it alone. What's the biggest map you have?"

Most of the maps they had centered on California, they never had to go that far distance-wise to save an innocent. They had a globe, but the more detailed maps the better when it came to scrying. It happened though that Piper had recently bought a map of the U.S., well an educational poster she was going to hang up in Wyatt's room. It highlighted the states, so they should at least be able to figure out if she is in the U.S., and hopefully what state. They'd need to get a more detailed map of said state to get the specific location they need but it would be a good start. It would be better if they had the scrying computer program Billie had rigged up, but she was currently out of town.

So Paige and Piper went downstairs and Phoebe started the scrying using Darien and Trixie to focus the crystals energy. An object belonging to the person usually worked better, more focused, but Darien claimed they didn't have anything of hers, so close family would have to do. Well until, assumingly out of curiosity, Wyatt orbed up into the attic. Trixie and Wyatt looked happy to see someone around their own age. Phoebe could tell the kid was getting antsy so she told Wyatt to show Trixie some of his toys and the two went off to the playroom. They held hands and in a flurry of purple smoke and bright blue orbs they were gone.

The crystal didn't seem to be picking up anything at first, Phoebe moved the crystal slowly across the country starting around California. She held Darien's hand and told him to focus his thoughts on his wife while she focused on his energy, hopefully, that would be enough to find her. For a long time, the crystal stayed slack, though Phoebe was sure she was doing it right, after having scried a million times before, she began to worry that they weren't going to find her in the U.S. Or that she didn't have enough information on her for it to work. They went over the whole map before dinner but had found nothing.

Afterward, they tried again, this time Piper and Paige helped out, it usually worked better when they combined their powers. Finally, the crystal started moving, toward the northeast of the map, but it wouldn't settle, it started circling the region from New York to Maine. No matter how they jostled it the crystal wouldn't, couldn't, find a precise location.

"It's possible," Phoebe mused, "this cursed town is somehow blocking our magic, which would be why we can't get a precise reading. But it's a start."

He looked nervous but satisfied, he didn't appear as worried and disheveled. It was clear that the weight of the day was getting to him. It was still unclear how long he and Trixie had been bouncing around before Piper and Phoebe had found them and just before that they had made the big jump from their world and time to ours. He agreed to call it a night for the time being.

 _ **Later that night, when all was quiet in the Halliwell manor…**_

A familiar stranger visited for the second night in a row. The manor now familiar, she wasted no time in heading to the attic, to the book. She was delighted to confirm her suspicions, the book she had received from Mr. Gold held several spells that matched those in this Book of Shadows.

She spent the rest of her night as she had the last, flipping through the book, absorbing all she could. She only hoped that it would not all be lost when she woke up.

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 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Please Review! Any comments, questions, concerns, or ideas moving forward? Let me know!**

 **Next Chapter will be out on or before December 1!**


	3. When Demons Attack

**A/N Here it is! Thank you so much to everyone who followed and favorited, and Fluehatraya, Anthony, Hi (Guest), and Mojo Jojo for reviewing! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story and have questions! I'm kind of writing it in Once Upon A Time's format, where view often switches so multiple stories are happening at once, which I understand can be quite confusing, so always feel free to ask.**

 **Without giving away too much, I will say that Darien is an OC, I will be giving him his own backstory and fairytale and, while I'm still working on it, I do believe much of him and Prue's time in the Enchanted Forest will be spent with OCs. This is because in OUAT everything is intertwined and connected, and so I'm a bit hesitant to mess with that and perhaps unintentionally contradict the show. I'm not sure if they will interact with anyone we know outside of Rumpelstiltskin and Regina.**

 **As for how Prue was able to tell him about her sisters, I will say for now that there is a point in her time in the Enchanted Forest where the curse Rumpelstiltskin put on her is broken. The details of how this will happen will be revealed in the future, but if you'd like a hint, just consider the type of magic often used to break curses in Once Upon a Time. :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: When Demons Attack**

 ** _San Francisco, CA_**

When Piper came down the next morning to begin working on breakfast, she was surprised to find Darien up. She stifled a laugh at first glance, dressed in an oversized shirt and pajama pants, which he was borrowing from Leo, with his light brown hair disheveled from sleeping on the couch, he hardly looked as regal as he had when they had first spotted him. But then, she was even more surprised to realize he was browsing their displayed family photos, paying particular attention, it seemed, to the photo of herself, Phoebe, and Prue. The very same that Grams had taken not long before her passing, about 8 years ago.

"See something you like?" She asked bluntly, pulling his attention quickly, uncomfortable with how he examined the photo, but unsure why.

"Just wondering how the artist got so many small details on such a small canvas," he explained, running a finger delicately over the photo as if trying to feel the brush strokes.

"It's easy when you have a camera," Piper stated by way of explanation.

"Oh yes, I'd heard of those but have never seen the work in person," He nodded thoughtfully, setting the photo back in its place, "My wife told me a bit about it but technology had not advanced that far in the Enchanted Forest. So this is a, um, photograph, of you, Phoebe, and-"

"Our sister Prue, she passed away five years ago," she stated sharply, cutting him off.

"I know, I mean, I'd heard," He covered, quickly turning his attention away from the photograph, setting it down, "My apologies, do you still miss her?"

"It was a long time ago, but she is my older sister, I'll always miss her," she replied, taking a deep breath, it was too early to get too emotional, "Why are you up so early anyway?"

"I'm not finding it so easy to sleep," He explained, "It has only been days since the curse has been enacted as far as Trixie and I are concerned but time is relative, it has likely been years or perhaps decades since the curse has been enacted here. I must find her as soon as possible."

"Trust us we'll do our best to find her with whatever information you got," Piper assured, "For now though, you can either try to get some more rest or help me make breakfast using the technologies of this world."

He hesitated only a moment before following her through to the kitchen. The technological conveniences of this world never ceased to amaze. Plus, the sooner they finished breakfast, the sooner they could reconvene the search.

He found himself fascinated with the appliances, asking several questions about things Piper had taken for granted since they'd always been around as she'd grown up. Like the refrigerator, microwave, and toaster. She found it a bit silly to have to explain these things to another adult, but it made her realize that even though he had given them the details of his present situation, there was still much she didn't know about him, the world he comes from, or even, most importantly, the innocent she was trying to save. It was time to make some small talk. She owned a club, she, if anyone, could get him to spill.

"So your wife is from here, well this world." Piper stepped lightly, "How long has it been since she switched over?"

"I met her in our world, we were together for about four years. I do not know quite how long she was there before that. Why is that relevant," He asked confused.

"Well if she had lived most of her life here she likely had connections, do you know where she's from?" Piper pushed, "Any family, friends, or acquaintances even might have information or something of hers that would make her easier to track. Since, as you say, she is a good witch she probably had a whitelighter, if you know their name or can give us hers, they might still be able to sense her."

"I don't know," He said, hesitant to reveal too much.

"Look, I know there's something about your wife you really don't want us to know, given you won't even give me her name," Piper stated, irritated, "But, we're gonna need more if we are going to be able to track her down further."

"She is a very private person," He sighed, there was a lot he wanted to tell her, but he was sworn to secrecy.

Just then, Trixie appeared in the kitchen in a puff of purple smoke.

"Papa! Papa, help!" She cried clearly frightened as she ran toward her father, though there appeared no immediate danger. A moment later a demon appeared just behind her, a reptile sort of monstrosity. The basic form of a man, but with skin made up of green scales, a long thick reptilian tail, bright yellow eyes, and a snake-like tongue spilling from its mouth.

Its tongue whipped out lightning quick to wrap around the terrified child's arm and began to reel her in. Piper responded quickly, blowing up the beast, just a moment after Paige had orbed in, reacting to her charge's distress. Thankfully, it wasn't an upper-level demon so it didn't regenerate, they were sure it had been vanquished. To determine whether more would follow would require more research.

Darien scooped up his daughter and calmed her down, making sure she was alright and checking if she had been hurt. There was a thin red circle around her wrist, where she had been grabbed, but it didn't seem to break skin. Paige was able to heal it easily.

"Thank you," Trixie said to the sisters after catching her breath.

"I'm just glad you're safe sweetie," Piper replied, "Now please tell me, how did you know this monster was coming, did he follow you from upstairs?"

Trixie had spent the night in Wyatt's room, it had seemed appropriate since the two had gotten along so well the evening before.

"I had a dream he was coming for me," Trixie answered, "When he grabbed my arm I couldn't get away, and he took me someplace dark and scary."

"Well, no worries ok? He's not coming back now," Piper reassured.

"What's going on, I heard screaming?" Leo said, running into the kitchen but pausing when he saw no threat.

"There was a monster but he's gone now, for good," Piper explained, "Trixie why don't you go back upstairs and play with Wyatt?"

Trixie nodded, kissed her dad on the cheek, and disappeared the same way she had come.

All the adults had kept their cool for the kid's sake, now that wasn't necessary.

"What the hell was that?" Darien asked fearfully.

"Demon attack," Piper said, as an answer to Darien and in clearer response to Leo's earlier question, "She should be safe with Wyatt for now, as long as they're together his forcefield should keep both of them safe."

"It targeted Trixie, but why?" Paige asked, bewildered.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Piper sighed, "She came down in a panic, no warning, and he appeared a moment later. It was all very quick."

"Demon? That's what a demon looks like here?" Darien said, still in shock. The creature was like nothing he had seen before or imagined would be in the "Land Without Magic".

"Not all demons, there are several species," Leo corrected.

"Yeah, this was one I've never seen before," Paige remarked.

"Me neither, but I think I did see something like it in the Book of Shadows," Piper added, and up they went to the attic, Piper leading the way.

When they reached the attic Piper was surprised to find the book lying open on the sofa, instead of closed on the stand like they usually have it.

She grabbed the book and glanced confused back at Paige, Leo, and Darien, the only people she knew who could sneak access to the book, "Did any of you go through the book last night?"

They all shook their heads in response. Piper could've sworn she was the last one up there and had placed the book in its usual position. This was the second morning in a row that she felt the book had been moved overnight, could someone be sneaking in to read it? Or was she just being forgetful and paranoid?

They had more pressing matters so she pushed those thoughts aside, placed the book on the podium, and began flipping through while they discussed possibilities.

"So your Book of Shadows also has information on all these different demons? Why?" Darien asked, having been introduced to the Book of Shadows, though not in detail, the night before.

"Not to brag, but this house is kind of a beacon for demons," Piper remarked sarcastically.

"But they had been leaving us alone," Paige reminded her, "Until today I guess."

"It sounds like it was personal though, it came for Trixie," Leo reasoned, "And he must have been lower level, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to vanquish him so easily."

"There are worse demons?"Darien asked, concerned.

Leo nodded apologetically, "There's a demon hierarchy, some are harder to vanquish than others."

"Found it," Piper called their attention to the book. On the left was a drawing of the demon, almost exactly as they had seen. Paige grimaced, having not gotten a good look at its front before it was vanquished. Together they read the entry silently.

 _"The lacertian are a race of demons that dwell together in nests in the depths of the Underworld and rarely see the light of day. Their tongues are their primary weapon, they secrete a type of poison that, when in contact with their skin, renders a magical being powerless, unable to fight back or escape with magic, making it easy for them to feed off of lesser or weakened demons._

 _If seen on the surface they are likely on a bounty hunt, being offered a trade for their victim. They are not great fighters, but their speed and ability to render their victims powerless makes them ideal for catching beings with powers that would otherwise make it easy for them to escape, particularly teleportation. It is sensitive to spatial energy shifts, and thus is more easily able to track witches, or other beings, with this power."_

Also included was a vanquishing spell which Piper took down on a note. She may not need it, but her sisters with less … explosive powers may need it if another one makes an appearance and she's not around.

"Demon for hire," Piper said, "Why haven't we heard of them? There was a time tons of those were being sent our way."

"Maybe because they're weaker than those we've seen," Leo offered, "There's a chance they don't know she is currently under the protection of the Charmed Ones."

"But why would they go after her?" Paige wondered aloud, "She's only been here a few days. Heck, she was just assigned as my charge yesterday. Who has a bounty over her head already?"

"Actually wait, I think I do know what this is about," Darien stated, to the surprise of the room, he took a deep breath as they waited patiently for him to continue, "We had problems with this back in the Enchanted Forest too, just after she was born, she was nearly kidnapped. Something about being part witch and part whatever I am, or being part of both worlds, I didn't really understand it. We took care of it though, or at least, we thought we did."

"Maybe it's something like with Wyatt," Paige recalled, "Ya know, him being twice-blessed and all."

"Then we can expect more to come," Piper surmised, "They'll send stronger demons once they figure out she's with us. We have to find out and stop the person who's sending them in the first place."

"Paige, could you ask the Elders what they know about this," Leo asked, it's what he would've done if he were still their whitelighter, "This may have something to do with why she was assigned a whitelighter so young. For now, though, it might be best to take her to magic school, she'd be safest there."

"I'm on it," Paige replied, before disappearing quickly in a flurry of orbs.

"Sorry Darien, but this means we're gonna have to put the search for that cursed town on hold for the moment," Piper stated with sympathy, but she knew it was the right choice. At this point, it was clear who was in the most danger.

He conceded, "I understand, I want Trixie safe, her mother would too."

 ** _Storybrooke, ME_**

Patience woke up early for the weekend. She'd had the same dream as before, which she found particularly enjoyable, especially as she confirmed her suspicions of lots of the spells and potions in the book she got from Mr. Gold matching the one she'd spent the night working through in her dream. What wasn't included in the journal she'd found were the description of magical creatures and beings, mostly evil and mostly terrifying. It was curious, but perhaps the author of the journal hadn't known of them or hadn't seen it fit to include them. Either way, Patience hoped to never encounter anything like that. That would be a real nightmare. Since it was the weekend and she was still tired, Patience attempted to get back to sleep. Finding that to be impossible, she opted to attend to her weariness with coffee, treating herself to Granny's.

She was surprised when she once again ran into Henry, heading in the same direction. He looked very excited when he caught her eye.

"Patience!" He called to her, and she slowed so he could catch up and close the gap between them.

"Hey Henry, where are you heading so early?" She asked with a smile.

"I'm going to meet Emma and Ms. Blanchard at Granny's," he replied sincerely, Patience frowned.

"Does your mom know about this?" She asked concerned, she knew his mother had basically forbidden him from having contact with Emma.

"I told her I was going to the arcade," He smiled mischievously, and, while she didn't condone lying, Patience felt happy that he was one of the few people in this town that would trust her to keep something secret like that from his mom.

"Better be careful, you'd be in a lot of trouble if she found out you were lying," Patience noted.

"I'm not too worried about that, there are bigger things going on now," Henry stated confidently.

"Oh yeah, like what?" Patience asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Henry remarked.

"Try me," Patience challenged, encouragingly.

"I found Prince Charming from the book, he's a coma patient at the hospital because the curse is trying to keep him and Snow White apart. Last night, I lent Ms. Blanchard the book to read their story to him. I think it could help him wake up, and bring them back together again," Henry replied excitedly, "That's why we're meeting today, to find out if anything happened."

Patience appeared to consider what he'd said a bit before responding, "That's great Henry, I hope it works out."

"You really believe me?" He smiled, surprised.

"Of course," Patience replied, she did have some reservations and Henry knew that, he attributed it to the curse, but he was still glad she supported him.

"Thank you Patience," He smiled appreciatively, then glanced around to make sure no one was listening and whispered, "Would you like to join operation Cobra with me and Emma? We're going to beat this curse together."

Seeing as she had begun to seriously consider the reality of this curse, given the recently learned reality of magic, Patience was tempted to accept. However, this also felt very personal between Henry and Emma. She had an inkling Emma was more trying to help Henry work through his "issues" than actually believing his story, and really she didn't want to step on Emma's toes.

"That would be great Henry, but I don't know how good it will look to Regina, and I kinda need my job while this curse is still on," Patience laughed, "But remember, I'm always available for help if you need it."

"Gotchya," Henry understood.

Thinking about the curse, Patience couldn't help but wonder, "You know what Henry, I have a question I think you can help me with."

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Do you know who I am? Could you find me in the book?" Patience asked. She wasn't sure how much she'd truly believe, but who knows, it might actually provide some explanations.

"You're the first person to ask me!" He said excitedly, "I haven't placed everyone yet, but I will give it a closer look for you!"

"Thank you, Henry," Patience smiled appreciatively as they were approaching the entrance to Granny's.

"You can come meet Emma and Mary Margaret with me, I have a feeling she's gonna have good news," Henry smiled eagerly. Patience had nothing planned so she agreed. She ordered coffee and bought a hot chocolate for Henry, just the way he liked it, with cinnamon, and they waited for Emma and Mary Margaret.

They didn't have to wait too long for Emma.

"Hey kid," she greeted, "Patience, wasn't expecting you here."

"It's ok, she's cool," Henry stated, "I told her about Prince Charming, she wants to know if he's woken up!"

"Oh really?" Emma asked, giving Patience a look Henry didn't catch. Though Patience had saved Emma's life, between finding out she supported Henry's "delusions" and her connection to Regina, who had been proven to be actively trying to destroy Emma's life, Emma had a pretty mixed impression of her. Before Patience could reply, Henry produced something from his backpack.

"I also brought this for you," he said handing it to Emma. It was a bag of clothes for Emma to change into. When she came to Storybrooke to bring Henry home, she didn't exactly plan on staying at all, she didn't pack anything, so Henry figured it was the least he could do. Emma tried to refuse but of course, Henry insisted and she left to change. She returned not long after.

"Thanks for the shirt," Emma stated, now in a dark blouse Patience recognized as one of Regina's, "Hey, is this your mother's?"

"She'll never notice," Henry smirked.

"She does have, like, at least ten in that same color," Patience added lightly, and Henry nodded in agreement.

As they waited for Mary Margaret, Emma tried to calm down Henry, lower his expectations, Patience figured it was because she believed Mary Margaret would bring disappointing news. But she came soon enough, and her news, though not as grand as Henry had hoped, was far from disappointing. She had tried what Henry had advised, she read to John Doe the story of Snow White and Prince Charming, and he had grabbed her hand. Though he didn't seem to be much farther along when she left him last night, she was sure she had reached him somehow. With that, Henry was eager to return to the hospital, sure that if she read to him some more, he would wake up. And so they made their way to Storybrooke's only hospital.

Something was definitely up when they got to the hospital, there was a noticeable crowd of medical staff rushing around the room that had belonged to John Doe.

"You're right. He's waking up!" Henry stated excitedly, but the adults were wary because it wasn't just medical staff that was present, the Sheriff was too. Graham approached them first.

"Henry, you should stay back," Graham conditioned.

"What's going on? Is it John Doe? Is he okay?" Mary Margaret asked nervously.

"He's missing," Graham stated solemnly. At the same time, Regina noticed them from inside the room and also approached.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Regina demanded of Emma before turning on Henry, "Henry, I thought you were at the arcade. Now you're lying to me? And Patience, you're in on this?"

"Well, um, I -" Patience stuttered trying to find the right words. Regina's tone implied that this misstep could very well cost her her job.

"Don't blame Patience, she didn't know I'd lied to you," Henry defended, lying now on Patience's behalf.

"What happened to John Doe, did someone take him?" Mary Margaret asked, urgently drawing attention back to the more pressing situation.

"We don't know yet. His IVs were ripped out but there's no sign for sure there was a struggle," Graham interceded.

"What did you do?" Henry glared at Regina.

"You think I had something to do with this?' Regina asked, with what appeared to be mock, or at least exaggerated, disbelief.

"It is curious that the Mayor is here," Emma pointed out.

Regina smirked and turned to Patience, "You didn't tell them?"

"She's his emergency contact," Patience recalled sheepishly, she couldn't believe she hadn't made the connection, she should've warned them.

"You know him?" Mary Margaret asked Regina.

"I found him. On the side of the road years ago with no ID. I brought him here." Regina stated matter-of-factly.

"Mayor Mills saved his life," Dr. Whale backed her up, just coming out of the room.

"Will he be okay?" Mary Margaret asked the doctor.

"Okay? The man's been on feeding tubes for years on constant supervision. He needs to get back here right away or, quite honestly, 'okay' might be a pipe dream," Dr. Whale didn't hold back on his analysis.

"Well then, let's quit yapping and start looking," Emma said.

"That's what we're doing? Just stay out of this, dear. And since I clearly can't keep you away from my son, I guess I'm just going to have to keep my son away from you. Enjoy my shirt, because that's all you're getting. Sheriff, find John Doe. You heard Dr. Whale. Time is precious," Regina ordered, grabbing Henry, her eyes shot daggers at Patience, letting Patience know in her own intense way that she should be heading out too. To Patience's credit, she stood her ground until Regina was out of sight, but she did feel it was just about time to make her exit.

As the group now made up of Dr. Whale, Sheriff Graham, Emma, and Mary Margaret made their way to have a look at the security camera tapes, Patience excused herself."Sorry guys just remembered I really have to be somewhere right now, I hope everything works out," Patience knew this wouldn't help her image as Regina's lackey, but she didn't mind that right now. She had read about scrying, a magical method of tracking down people, and she was itching to try it out. She didn't read the fine print, that the being you're searching for has to have some relation to magic. Fortunately though, John Doe, cursed Prince Charming, fit that requirement.

First piece needed, something that belongs to the person you want to find. When they were out of sight she made her way into John Doe's room, feigning curiosity, wary of any cameras. On a chair beside the bed lay a bag with his personal belongings. When she was sure no one could see, she slowly used her powers to pull a small handkerchief that was peeking out of an external pocket to her hand and slipped it into her bag. That will do just fine. Next stop: Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop.

 ** _San Francisco, CA_**

Phoebe had had the strange dream once again that night, but she still knew no more than before. The next step would have to be checking the Book of Shadows. However, that would mean going to the manor and explaining herself to Piper, and in the middle of a separate crisis being contained at the manor, for now at least. No, she was going to have to put her search issues on hold, at least until they helped Darien and Trixie.

Piper had called her after the demon attack and caught her up with what they knew, and it had unnerved her. This case is much greater than they had originally thought. She headed over as soon as she could. She welcomed the distraction and was eager to help.

When Phoebe got there they were still in the middle of what had become brunch and Piper invited her to eat with them. It was delicious, as always. Piper didn't always make a big family meal, but when she did, it was always phenomenal, like all her cooking really. Phoebe supposed she appreciated it even more now that she was out of the manor.

While Phoebe was helping Piper clean up, she felt a slight tug on her sleeve and found Trixie trying to get her attention.

"Phoebe?" Trixie asked.

"Yes, honey?" Phoebe replied.

"I have to show you something," Trixie whispered, she looked nervous so Phoebe followed without resistance as Trixie pulled her into the living room where they could talk in private.

"What is it, sweetie?" Phoebe took a seat on the couch and pulled Trixie up next to her. Trixie looked Phoebe in the eye and her body tensed as she was familiarly thrown into a premonition.

Trixie was in the attic with Phoebe and her sisters when a Tracer demon appears.

It grabs Trixie and immediately fades away with her.

The sun is setting through the window.

"Can you help me?" Trixie asks when she noticed Phoebe coming out of the vision.

"Of course, we'll keep you safe," Phoebe replied and held Trixie close when she realized how scared the kid looked.

Then it dawned on her, Trixie knew what she had seen, "Honey, did you send me that vision?"

Trixie nodded, "Because you can see, like me."

"How did you know that?" Phoebe was amazed, she couldn't recall them telling the newcomers about their individual powers, though of course Piper or Paige could've told her. She'd also never shared a vision before, she didn't know that was possible.

Trixie smiled then and pulled something out of her pocket, it was a necklace with a simple silver heart pendant. She handed it to Phoebe and whispered, "Mama."

Phoebe was thrown into another, faster vision. She saw Trixie, arms seen fixing the necklace around her neck, and a voice, familiar and yet not readily placed, was heard. "No matter what happens sweetie, just remember, I will always be with you." And that was it.

"This was your mother's?" Phoebe asked, to which Trixie nodded, "Trixie, why didn't you give this to me before?" It would've been very helpful when they were scrying the night before.

"Papa said no," She answered glancing back toward the kitchen, "But I trust you."

"Well thank you, I'm sure we'll find your mother soon," Phoebe reassured, securely placing the necklace in her own pocket. Trixie watched intently, glancing back towards the kitchen where her father waited. Phoebe then put a finger to her lips and whispered "shh", as a promise to keep her secret, Trixie smiled as she mimicked the gesture.

Phoebe then carried Trixie back to the group where they began preparing the kids for a day at magic school.

 ** _Storybrooke, ME_**

"Hello Patience, nice to see you as always," Mr. Gold greeted as Patience entered the shop.

"Hello Mr. Gold, good to see you as well but this isn't a courtesy call," Patience returned, "I'm looking for something tricky, thought I might find it here. You wouldn't by chance have a crystal would you?"

Gold smiled, knowingly, he had heard what was going on in the John Doe case. Nearly nothing goes on in this town without his knowledge. He also knew what Patience was up to, and he had just the thing she was looking for.

"Yes, I think I can help you, just let me check around back." He stated.

"I'll come with you, I'd like to also make a pot of coffee if you don't mind," Patience followed him around the counter. Having finished her coffee from Granny's she was still feeling a bit out of it, waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

"Of course not, have a rough night?" He queried. He had his own guesses about what was making her so restless, even if she didn't.

"No, I think I've got enough sleep, just having an off day I suppose," She replied, then confessed, "I've actually been having some pretty interesting dreams lately. Didn't think I could dream anymore."

"Oh? Such as?" He asked, urging her to give more details.

"Well, I'm in this really nice, big, house in California and it just feels really familiar. Like, I can actually picture myself there in real life," Patience reminisced as she put a pot of coffee on.

"Are you alone?" He pressed.

"Yes and no, I haven't seen anyone but I don't feel like I'm alone when I'm there," Patience attempted to explain, "But you know, before this dream I can't remember ever dreaming, isn't that strange?"

"Ah yes, here it is," Gold avoided the question, producing a clear crystal pendant, "I believe this is what you were looking for?"

"Yes, it's perfect," Patience agreed as he handed it to her to look over. Coffee made she dispensed it into a paper cup and walked over to the front counter register, pulling out her wallet.

"How much?" She asked.

"Let's say ten dollars," Gold set, "It was just gathering dust anyway."

Patience knew it was probably worth quite a bit more, Gold was just being generous. In fact, he had been being quite a bit more generous to her than usual lately. She pulled out a twenty dollar bill.

"Keep the change, I insist," She exchanged, adding when he made a move to argue, "Take it as payment for the coffee as well if you'd like."

Of course, he didn't need the money, it was a matter of pride. He took the money with a small smile and in turn brought out a tea bag from behind the counter.

"Then I insist you take this as well," he handed it to her, "It's my own herbal mix, it will help you sleep better."

"Alright, thanks Uncle Gold," Patience took the little packet and put it along with the crystal in her purse, "I've got a couple more errands to run. Take care!"

 ** _San Francisco, CA_**

Leo and Piper took Darien and the kids to magic school, leaving Phoebe behind to begin preparing for the coming demon. And the impending fight with whatever higher demon sent it. They were going to set a trap, this wouldn't be the first Tracer demon they've faced. The plan was simple, Trixie would teleport herself into the attic, the demon on the hunt will follow, when he enters the attic he will be frozen and trapped in the cage while Trixie makes a quick getaway back to magic school. They clarified with Darien that Trixie's power to teleport currently extends only to places she has been, so this should work. (He had initially insisted on teleporting with her, but the sisters convinced him it wasn't necessary. As far as they could see, he'd just be a liability.) Once they have the demon they can ask their questions. There was no guarantee he would talk, of course, demons rarely gave up information so easily. So in preparation, Phoebe had begun putting together some potions that should help to convince him telling what he knows is in his best interest. Even though they were lower level and Piper alone could easily take him out with a blast, Phoebe also planned to add in a few vanquishing potions, just in case things got out of hand.

It was about noon, not long into her work, when Paige orbed in, just returning from the elders.

"Where is everybody?" Paige asked confused, looking around, "What're the potions for?"

"They took the kids to magic school, Piper and Darien should be back soon though," Phoebe explained, "Where've you been?"

"I was with the Elders."

"Really? It's been hours."

"Hm, didn't really feel that long."

"Oh right, I almost forgot about the time delay between here and Up There, so what'd you find out?"

"Oh yes! Now, ok, I did talk to them about Trixie but, before they come back, I also wanted to tell you ... I talked to them about Prue."

"Wait what? Really? How? What'd they say?" Phoebe could hardly contain herself, though she had been trying to distract herself from the whole Prue situation it hadn't left the back of her mind. In fact, she had to admit that she had browsed through the book for more than potions, but to no avail and with little time to spare.

"Well I tried to be pretty casual about it, you know, just told them I wanted to talk to her, get some advice, but also that I have never been able to summon her and I wanted to know why," Paige set up.

"And?" Phoebe pushed.

"And they know ... absolutely nothing," Paige sighed, "Apparently it's out of their realm of expertise. They only have some control over spirits when they make contact with the living. They promised me they never prevented contact between us, but that's about as far as their knowledge on the subject goes."

"Well that's not promising," Phoebe sighed.

"Nope," Paige agreed.

"Paige, you're back," Piper greeted, teleporting in with Darien, "Get anything good from the Elders."

"Yes," Paige replied, she and Phoebe promptly turned their attention back to the current situation, "They were very interested in the situation, I had to explain everything to them because apparently, they've been oblivious to this all Up There. Now, they do have an idea of what Darien is. They have records of a being known as the Traveler, one person born every century or so with the powers to move through space and manipulate time. The person can come from any of the several existing worlds, and they are the only individual with the innate ability to travel between them. It has been nearly 500 years since they've seen one here. This power typically isn't inheritable, however, there is an ancient prophecy of a Key, a being with the power to grant themselves and others access to all the worlds. A powerful weapon for good or evil, this Key is said to be the child of the Traveler and a powerful good witch. So yeah, that kind of exactly fits our innocent. They're going to look into who could be behind the attack. Same thing with the Enchanted Forest curse-town-thing, they have no idea what's going on but they will be checking their resources and getting back to me."

"Wait, how did they not know about Trixie but you were assigned her whitelighter?" Piper asked.

"They didn't really get that either, but they think it's probably like a destiny thing, most powerful witches being called to protect the Key," Paige explained.

"Sounds likely, she did get the vision to come here," Phoebe added, "But guys I think we're missing the big picture here … this is just like Buffy!"

"No, it's not," Paige remarked, "Trixie's not a bundle of energy converged by some monks, she's a witch."

"She's a key between worlds, close enough!" Phoebe smiled, she was fond of the show in question and was happy to find this connection.

"Well yeah, but functionally our Key is nearly completely different," Paige argued, "As far as we know her powers will develop to a point where she can teleport herself and others between worlds at will, no apocalypse and no sacrifice needed."

"Ok, now's not the time, don't you think?" Piper reprimanded, turning attention back to Darien and the situation at hand.

"Traveler? What is that exactly?" Darien asked, this was the first time he knew what to call himself and he was having a bit of trouble comprehending this new information.

"The Elders did want to have a talk with you, but they agreed to wait until we get everything with your wife and Trixie sorted," Paige explained.

"Oh yes, thank you," He replied, pushing this focus aside, "So what can I do in the meantime?"

"You can help us prepare for the demon," Piper stated, handing him a knife and herbs.

 ** _Storybrooke, ME_**

After visiting Gold's pawn shop and getting the crystal Patience needed just one more thing to scry: a map. And she knew just where to get the most detailed maps of Storybrooke, Town Hall. Patience had a hunch that between Henry and the John Doe case Mayor Mills would be too busy to check into the office today, and luckily she was right.

In just about ten minutes after arriving she had laid out the map on her desk, held the crystal in one hand and the handkerchief in the other, and opened her book to the page on scrying. She didn't have as much trouble as she was expecting. It wasn't long before that crystal dropped down, like a magnet, right on John Doe's current location. Patience resisted the urge to squeal, she was a little too old for that, but she couldn't help the big silly grin that crossed her face as she noted the location, packed everything up and headed out to the woods. Toward the T(r)oll Bridge.

Maybe she was a little too eager. The woods were right out back of the hospital, it is likely that the sheriff had already figured out that he had headed that way. But Patience knew with precise certainty, by magic, his location. She'd once again done something that she didn't believe was possible a week ago. And once again she felt like she was acing this witching exam, it came so easily to her. This was of course because she had been a witch for several years, before being trapped in a 28-year long time loop curse, but, still being under said curse, she didn't know that.

She entered the forest at the closest access point, starting on a path that headed in the general direction of John Doe, but she would have to cut off it to get to her destination. No worries going in though, she knew what she was doing. She remembered walking through this forest before, for photos. It was beautiful, especially the way the sun shone through the trees.

However, right now it was darker than she remembered despite not really being that late in the day. She really had to watch her step. She hadn't brought a flashlight, didn't think she'd need one, but found herself resorting to her phone's flashlight to keep from tripping over tree roots. Then she heard something concerning, but indistinct, and she brushed it off. Then a few minutes later, she heard it again, unmistakable and very close, a growl. She began to run, straight in the same direction she had been going, seemingly away from the sound, but suddenly her path was blocked and she stopped dead in her tracks. It was … some kind of wolf, maybe? Patience had never seen one in person, but still, she got the sense that it was not just a wolf. Superficially it looked like what she'd pictured a wolf to look like, but it was far more frightening. It was large, coming up to about her chest on all fours, its teeth, all that she could see, were sharpened to a point, it's fur was black as night, nearly blending to the surroundings, and its blood red eyes held an intelligence she'd never seen in an animal. It stared right at her, sizing her up, and suddenly nothing mattered anymore, nothing except getting away. Patience dropped everything she had and tried to slowly back away from the wild animal, but it growled more threateningly, it wasn't done with her. She was desperate, she stood no chance in a one on one with this animal, so she made a dangerous move, that frankly would have worked on a normal wolf. With a frantic wave of her hand, she sent the wolf crashing hard into a tree trunk nearby, and she ran. The wolf - or whatever it was - was hardly phased but it did let out a gut-churning growl before giving chase. It moved with unnatural speed, nipping her leg so she fell and pinned her to the ground, a paw on either arm so she couldn't move them. She struggled under its weight, it sniffed her, then let out a howl, long and loud. Fearing for her life, she reacted on instinct, she faced the wolf, squinted her eyes in concentration, and willed him off. To her surprise and relief, it worked. It went flying once more, Patience jumped up, ready to run the second she was free. Her path was blocked once again though, this time by a woman. She wore a long black cloak with red cuffs and lined in a red and gold design. This would have been maybe reasonable, but she was also nearly transparent and floating at least a foot above the ground. The wolf-thing expressed its anger at Patience for evading him but he didn't advance on her in the presence of this woman.

"Heel fido," the woman admonished the beast amiably, her voice echoing ominously. It backed off but didn't shift its gaze from Patience, who backed up against a tree. She could feel blood dripping down her leg, but she turned her attention to the woman.

"And so the lost soul is found," the woman said to her, her voice sleek and filled with venom, "Still alive I see. We can change that."

In response, Patience waved her hand toward the woman in an attempt to throw her away. The foliage surrounding the woman responded accordingly, leaves scattering, branches breaking, and even large, nearby tree trunks wavering. Yet the woman remained unmoved.

"Ha! I exist only on the spiritual plane, your powers are useless against me!" She boasted.

"Who are you?" Patience whispered, in awe and fear.

She ignored the question, "You may have fooled your sisters, but not me."

"I'm an only child," Patience stated, surprised, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play with me, you may have escaped me before, but never again," she declared angrily.

"I swear I don't know anything, please, I'm not the person you're after," Patience pleaded, scared for her life, she could feel tears running down her cheeks. The woman noticed it too, her manner changed to displeasure, then suspicion, then curiosity. While there was no doubt that this was, in fact, the woman she was after, this show of weakness is not what she anticipated. Not nearly the behavior she had come to expect from the eldest Charmed One. Everything seemed to go silent as the ghostly woman contemplated the person before her.

 _*Perhaps she truly does not remember,_ The woman considered, putting on a sly smile, she drew closer, "What is your name?"

"Patience, Patience Bennett," she replied immediately.

 _As I suspected, I thought I smelled something in the air_ , the woman smirked, _They will be happy to hear this_.

"What do you want from me?" Patience asked.

"Do not fear ... Patience. You are lucky," the woman said, "I have decided to spare your life, for now. But tell anyone of this visit, and they will not be so lucky."

She turned away before shouting to the beast, "Come, you wretched animal."

The next growl from the beast was meant for the woman-in-the-cloak, but still, it came to her obediently. And together they disappeared in the blink of an eye.

If it wasn't for the gash on her leg and the developing bruises in her arms, Patience would've been sure it was all a nightmare.

 ** _San Francisco, CA_**

By the time of the sunset, the sisters were fully prepared in the attic. Darien was at magic school with Trixie, making sure Trixie teleported to them at the planned time. Then she did, sticking close to Piper. Following Trixie's vision, the Tracer demon then faded in before them, but now they were ready for him. Piper froze him, Trixie poofed back to magic school, and Paige and Phoebe put the last of the crystals into place. It went as smooth as they could hope, now hopefully the demon will cooperate.

Piper unfroze him and they watched and waited as he came to understand his situation. Trying several times to get away, but being zapped back into place. Though he physically looked much like the picture in the book and the Tracer demon they had met before, who had attacked the Sandman, he was nothing like them. To tell the truth, he was kind of a wimp for a demon. There was no shouting, no cursing, no lightning shots aimed at the sisters. After a while, he sat down resigned with his head between his legs. This shocked the sisters but they didn't let it show, and they didn't let their guard down.

"Who are you working for?" Piper began sternly.

"Oh no no no, you're the Charmed Ones, right? This is bad, very bad," He moaned, "We were supposed to find her first."

"Yes, we are. Now tell us who you were finding her for, or else," Piper threatened, trying hard not to underestimate this demon. This response was pitiful, but could it be a ploy? Was he as weak as he was playing?

"No no, I can't do that, he'll kill me!" He pleaded.

"We'll vanquish you if you don't tell us who _he_ is," Paige returned, showing him the potion bottles she held.

"If you help us, we can protect you from him. It's that or death, your choice," Phoebe stated with more sympathy, he was a demon with evil intentions, yes, but she could feel he really was afraid.

He considered her deal for a few moments, considered his options though there were few, and looked to each of the sisters in turn as if hoping they would reconsider and let him have the girl. None of them relented.

"Death or death, nothing can protect me from him," he muttered, then in one smooth motion put his hand to his heart, or where it would be if demons do have hearts in the same place as humans, and vanquished himself.

There was a moment of silence as the sisters stared on in disbelief.

"Well, that's a first," Piper eventually remarked, kicking aside a crystal to break the cage. No trace of the Tracer remained.

"We got nothing from him, and we didn't even get to use the potions," Paige grumbled.

"He was actually terrified, the strangest demon I think we've ever met," Phoebe commented.

"That's an understatement," Piper backed, and then sighed, "Well this was a waste of time."

 ** _Storybrooke, ME_**

Patience wiped away the stray tears from her face and regained composure when she was sure she was alone. As the adrenaline wore off she was extremely weary, her arms were sore, her leg stung, but she couldn't lay there helpless another moment. She forced herself up and made her way back to the spot she had dropped it, thankfully her phone's flashlight was still on, so it wasn't too hard to find. There she had a first aid kit with some bandages, intended for John Doe, but she needed them now. She bit her lip as she folded her pants up to above the knee to get a better look at the wound, it wasn't too large, but it would likely need stitches. She wrapped it up tightly, hoping the pressure could slow or stop the bleeding.

Dragging her things along, she continued on the path to John Doe, hoping he hadn't moved too far off. It wasn't worth it to turn back now. Her phone battery was low, she couldn't make a call, she just hoped that the search party was on their way to John Doe as well.

Luckily she found John Doe only moments before they did, lying unconscious partially in the stream that ran beneath the T(r)oll bridge. She ran to him, checked his pulse and breathing, verifying he was still alive. She had just begun to pull him back away from the water when the search party came near. She called them over, told them what she knew, and backed away to let them take control. They were surprised to see her, but the focus remained on John Doe. The events began to blur from there. She followed the group back to the hospital, weary but determined not to fall behind. John Doe was rushed away when they reached the hospital, but in the light Patience's injury became evident, blood had begun to seep through the bandage, and a nurse guided her away from the commotion to a separate room to get her stitched up by another doctor, Dr. Smith. She tried to converse with Patience as she stitched up her leg and checked the bruises as well as her vitals, find out what happened, but Patience was very reluctant to say anything. She didn't want anyone to get hurt, she didn't know what that ghostly woman she had encountered was capable of. The doctor was concerned, but she didn't push. Once she had finished the stitches she had found no reason to keep Patience any longer and let her go home.

By the time she reached her apartment Patience was exhausted. She quickly made the tea Gold had given her, hoping to ease her nerves and, as he said, help her get a better night's rest. Then she went straight to bed.

 ** _That Night …_**

Nobody visited the manor in the middle of that night, and Patience did not dream.

Charon did visit a curious individual, deep in the depths of the Underworld. She reported to him what she had witnessed in her encounter with Patience.

"I trust you know the value of this information," She smirked.

"Oh yes, this will be perfect," A dark figure, cloaked head to toe, replied in a deep voice, "And you will be repaid. When we take the witches, you will have the souls you desire."

* * *

Here italics are used to indicate Charon's thoughts.

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Please review with any questions, comments, critiques, or concerns!**

 **I'm sorry we didn't get any hints into Prue's time in the Enchanted Forest in this chapter, I promise there will be chapters in the future with this as a more main focus, but I'm still working that out at the moment. :)**

 **Also I hope you didn't mind the little Buffy banter, honestly I'm a big fan of Charmed and Buffy and when I decided what powers Darien would have, and subsequently what powers Trixie would have and what I wanted for her, I realized after how closely it wound up coming to what the Key in Buffy is and felt like I should address that. Also, I'd to point out that I love how it's canon that Buffy is a show in the Charmed universe, and I really like the idea of Phoebe being a fan lol.**

 **Finally, you probably noticed one of the Storybrooke scenes was directly from the show, dialogue and general action following the script (adding a dash of Patience). I've found reading fanfics that it's easy for these types of scenes to come off as too scripted with added characters obviously either stealing lines or not being involved at all. Personally, I don't like that and I tried to avoid that here, I apologize if it does come off that way, and I'm gonna try to minimize that in the future. We shall see!**


	4. Finding the Truth

**A/N I am very sorry for the delay in this chapter. The end of the semester kept me quite busy and it led directly into the holidays so I found it hard to find time to write. I have spent many nights going over this chapter, trying to find the best way to get to the main points, and I'm finally satisfied and ready to move forward. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.**

 **I also sincerely apologize for the hiatus following this chapter - it's harder to find the time and flow than I thought, and I really don't want to mess this up ... I hope to have it up by September so keep an eye out.**

 **Thank you so much to everyone who has read, followed, favorited and especially those who have reviewed my last chapter: Fluehatraya, wiccancharmedguy, charmednar, and shadowmoonsun3. I am so glad you guys are enjoying it and I really appreciate the feedback!**

 **Please RR, I would love to know what you think!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Finding the Truth**

 _ **Magic School**_

Trixie and Darien spent the night in a room prepared for them at magic school, for Trixie's safety. Whatever is tracking her would not be able to find her or enter magic school. Then the next day, they all regrouped at magic school. Paige had been contacted by the elders, they still didn't have much information on the specific situation but had seen it fit to lend them a map. This map was of course magical. It provided the locations of any and all gates to existing "hidden" towns, that is towns that exist on different planes, whether stuck in a time loop, cursed, both, or other. The problem was there had to be at least a hundred within the Northeast region of the U.S. alone, their prime search area. Apparently, it had been a sort of fad among witches in the past, particularly during the witch trials, to create and escape to these kinds of towns to live their ideal life. It also did not help that the map was consistently being updated, as new gates were opened or time loops were closed. This wasn't terribly frequent, but it was worrisome. When they presented Paige with this tool, she literally had no idea how it could help them. It would take ages to search through all of them and there were far too many risks involved, but she took it to the group.

"This is wonderful! It's perfect," Darien exclaimed happily, examining the map held in one hand, holding Trixie in the other arm. The poor girl had her head laid tiredly on her father's shoulder. She hadn't gotten much sleep, she'd had a nightmare and was missing her mother.

The group, consisting of Piper, Phoebe, Paige, and Leo, with Chris and Wyatt playing with a set of blocks on the other end of the room, stared on in disbelief. Paige voiced what they were all thinking, "What are you talking about? This hardly helps unless you know some way of narrowing down which of these is the town we're looking for. We can't check all of them."

"No _we_ can't," Darien agreed, "But _I_ can. With this map I'll be able to teleport to all of these places, I can check them out. I can manipulate time, freeze the scene, minimize the risk, and determine if it's the right place. Though it will feel longer to me, I'd estimate I could find the right town in a few days, tops."

This was just the break he'd been waiting for. Everything was coming together.

"All I ask is that you please protect Trixie while I do this, I don't want to put her at more risk," He asked, "Once I've found the town I will come back for her. Then you will be free to carry on with your lives."

"Now wait a minute, what the heck is that supposed to mean?" Piper countered, "Even if you find this town, there's still the matter of the curse, and the other issues, the dem-monsters, have yet to be dealt with. You cannot seriously believe we could just step back from this and carry on."

"I am very grateful, you have all been very helpful to my family thus far, but once this town is found your job is done. It's too dangerous, you would be putting yourselves in unnecessary risk," He explained, "This new information about the prophecy and the attacks were surprising, and I've thought about it, but it doesn't change anything. This isn't your battle, it's ours. We can handle it.

"This isn't up for debate," he continued sternly, before they could protest, using a commanding voice he hadn't used before, that asserted that any arguing would be futile, "Just promise me Trixie will be safe if I leave her with you."

"Yes, of course she will be," Phoebe replied, after a beat of silence.

"Thank you," He replied to Phoebe, then set Trixie down and told her, while on his knees to be about her level, "Honey I have to go right now, but I promise I will be back in no time. Be a good girl, for me ok?"

"Ok papa," Trixie replied, and the two exchanged a hug. In his arms she tensed, being thrown into a vision for a few moments. This went unnoticed to anyone but him, it wasn't the first time this had happened. When she relaxed he released her from the hug to face her, she was smiling.

"What did you see?" He whispered, looking deep into the bright blue eyes that so closely matched his own, though every other feature served to remind him of her mother.

"Mama," she smiled, he took this as a good sign.

"See? Everything is going to be alright. Remember what we talked about, yeah? I love you," He whispered back. She nodded her head in understanding, he gave her a kiss on her forehead, and then he teleported away with the map, presumably to one of the featured locations.

"Can I go play with the blocks?" Trixie asked, surprising the sisters with her changed mood. It was a good change though, so they assumed he had said something to cheer her up.

"Yeah, go ahead sweetie," Paige allowed, and Trixie ran off to play.

"I don't know what he was on, but there is no way we are letting Trixie go until we know she is safe," Piper declared.

"Agreed, she's my charge, after all, that's not just gonna change" Paige replied, "But that's kinda new right? Why on earth would he ask us to stop when the job is half done? Is he seriously worried about our safety?"

"He was serious about something alright. He doesn't want our help anymore. Whatever he thinks would be so dangerous for us doesn't seem to have him worried," Phoebe commented, "But he really doesn't know us if he thinks a few strong words will make us walk away from this."

"Maybe this isn't your fight, really," Leo countered lightly, aware he was backing a losing side, "It sounds like he has a plan to break this curse. Then perhaps his family can go back to the Enchanted Forest, whatever demons are after Trixie wouldn't be able to follow them and it would be out of your hands. You guys have already filled your Charmed destiny, no need to go putting yourselves in unnecessary danger."

"I'm not so sure it's unnecessary, anyone else find it strange Darien never referred to his wife by name?" Piper asked, "He acted very sketchy when I brought it up."

"Now that you mention it, yeah, that is pretty odd," Paige replied, "It could just be a privacy thing though, I mean we know she has to be a good witch. It's in the prophecy."

"Piper's right, it's more than that," Phoebe said, pulling out the silver heart necklace, "In all the mess of the demon attacks yesterday I nearly forgot about it, but Trixie gave this to me. Not only did she say it was her mother's, but her father had specifically asked her not to show it to us. She was really worried about him finding out she had given it to me."

"We made it clear something like this would've helped with the scrying. I mean, what on earth did he have to gain from hiding this?" Paige asked, examining the necklace herself, there wasn't really anything particularly distinguishable about it.

"Only reason I could think of is that he was worried I might get a telling premonition off of it, which means he was definitely hiding something," Phoebe noted, "I haven't, yet."

"He's hiding something and he says he is concerned about our safety, but I think there's gotta be more to it," Piper stated, "The only reason he would hide something like this would be if he thought he might not get our help finding her if we knew, which means it's probably evil. Sure, we know Trixie's mother had to have been a good witch, but what if things have changed since then. What if her mother had turned, or had been forcefully turned, evil? Or what if his wife, or whoever he's actually after in this curse, isn't her mother? We can't let him take Trixie until we know the full story. Until we know that she is safe."

"He really does love Trixie, I don't believe he'd do anything to hurt her," Phoebe added, "But you're right, that doesn't necessarily speak to if he's on team evil or not. We need more information."

"I'm going to be meeting quite a few people today for magic school, most of these people have devoted much of their lives to magic research, I can ask around and see if anyone knows anything on Travelers, the Key, curses or other worlds," Leo proposed, he had to work most of the day at magic school anyway, as it was still in the rebuilding stages since being reclaimed for good.

"That would be great," Piper replied, "Then we can head back to the manor, there's gotta be something there that can help. We can start by scrying with the necklace and checking through the book again. Leo, could you take the kids to the daycare? They should be safe there."

"I promised I'd have brunch with Henry, his friends are in town. After that I want to work with Trixie, it appears I've still got a lot to learn about my young charge, and who knows, maybe with her father not around I can get her to open up a bit more," Paige added, looking back over at the kids, who were together constructing a tower almost as tall as themselves, "You know, it must be so hard on her getting premonitions at such a young age. A power like that, I'd think it'd be bound until she was old enough to handle it. I mean, she can barely even communicate about the events she's witnessed, let alone fight to prevent these things from happening."

"I don't know about that, she's got another power I think," Phoebe recalled, "That vision last night, of the attack in the attic, I saw it, but it was her premonition. She sent it to me."

"That's actually not another power, it's an ability known as Transference. All witches who gain the power of premonition early in life have it," Leo explained, "The power of premonition is different from others in that its scope grows with maturity. During the formative years of a child's life, they will likely only have visions concerning themselves or close family, so they're typically pretty light. As a failsafe, however, during this time they also have this ability, which, along with allowing them to share their premonitions with witches who have the same power, allows their witch parent, when in close contact, to share in the power and intercept visions. Lighter visions would likely be shared but premonitions can, in this way, be kept from the child."

"You know a lot about this. Like, a surprising amount," Paige said, impressed.

"I may be mortal now, but I was an elder once, and a whitelighter long before that, is it really that surprising that I know a lot about premonition power development," Leo smirked, then admitted, "I also did some research before Wyatt was born … After we decided we wouldn't bind our child's powers unless there were special circumstances I wanted to know what we might be up against if it ever came up."

"You never told me this," Piper glared, surprised though, admittedly, also impressed.

Leo shrugged, with a cute and sheepish look, "It never came up?"

Piper considered this, "I will deal with you later."

The sister most invested in Leo's revelation, Phoebe, stayed uncharacteristically quiet as she left with Piper through the doorway that now magically lead to the staircase landing in the manor, but she was very happy to learn this. While her sisters had, at times, resented Grams binding their powers when they were young, Phoebe had never minded. She still didn't, not really. She had figured her powers would've been bound either way, and this didn't change the great impact she knew having her powers earlier would've likely had on her life, but it was good to know it probably wouldn't have been all bad.

 _ **Storybrooke, ME**_

The morning after the attack in the forest Patience woke up feeling agitated. On the one hand, she had been able to sleep in and actually felt well-rested. On the other hand, the darkening bruises on both her forearms and the throbbing pain in her right calf proved that the demon dog and female specter weren't simply the nightmare she had so hoped them to be. Of course, she still had no idea who they were, why they had attacked her, or, most importantly, what she could do if they came back. She was going to do her best to figure it out, and she was going to have to do it alone.

However, if there was one thing she felt it was safe to insinuate about magic, it was that it liked to keep hidden. This had to be the reason she had never heard about it before, and no one believed it existed. The reason that ghostly woman had commanded her not to tell anyone about the encounter. So the safest place was not alone in her apartment, it was out in town, with other people. At least that is what Patience told herself, and either way, she really didn't want to be alone at the moment. She dressed her stitches as the doctor had recommended, then wrapped up her leg as well as her arms, wearing loose pants and a long-sleeved shirt to cover them up, hoping to avoid too many questions. She took some ibuprofen for the pain, but that didn't make it much easier to walk, she couldn't help the slight limp in her step. Still resolved to leave the apartment, she prepared answers for questions she'd likely be asked, packed up her laptop along with her usual things, and headed out.

"Hi Patience, want the usual?" Ruby greeted with a smile as Patience entered Granny's. The usual, for Patience, was a simple cup of leaded coffee, served black.

"Hey Ruby, yup, you got it," Patience returned the smile and set up in one of the corner booths. It wasn't long before Ruby came by with her order.

"That's a wicked limp you got there, what happened?" Ruby asked.

"Is it really that noticeable?" Patience asked, blushing nervously, "It's pretty dumb, cut my leg tripping on some fallen branches out in the woods."

"Oh, that's right! You were on that search party to find John Doe," Ruby recalled, Patience nodded, "That must've been so exciting, wish I could've gone."

"No, no really it wasn't that exciting, just super creepy," Patience laughed, "I'm just glad he's alright."

"Poor guy though, I heard he can't remember a thing," Ruby relayed.

"Ruby? We got customers waiting," Granny chastised.

"Coming!" Ruby called back to her, then turned back to Patience, "Let me know if you need anything else."

"Can do, thank you," Patience replied, as Ruby headed back to work. Then Patience was free to begin her research.

She started with the demon-dog-wolf thing. A general search with the most descriptive words she could muster turned up tons of hits. Mostly clear fantasy, but many promising. This would take a while.

 _ **Magic School**_

After brunch with Henry Paige made her way back to magic school to check on Trixie. She hadn't sensed any distress so she wasn't too worried, and in fact, she was very pleased with what she found. There were about ten kids in daycare for the time, it was a weekend and they were still rebuilding their student-body, but still, Trixie and the boys were playing together on one of the playmats. They had rebuilt a tower with colorful blocks, and appeared to be playing house with action figures, though Chris was just sucking on whatever figure he had a hold of.

"How can I help you?" An elderly woman asked once she had spotted Paige. Paige didn't recognize her, she knew she must've been one of the new teachers.

"I don't believe, we've met. I'm Paige," She greeted, shaking hands with her, "I'm actually just checking up on Trixie. How is she doing?"

"Oh, Paige! Yes, I've heard about you, you're one of the Charmed Ones! I'm Mrs. Henderson," She returned, "Trixie's been wonderful, she's such a bright little girl. You're very lucky."

"I? What? No, no, she's not, um, mine," Paige confessed, awkwardly, "Sorry I thought Leo filled you in. She's an innocent we're protecting, one of my charges."

"Really?" Mrs. Henderson looked genuinely surprised, "My mistake, her and Wyatt have been thick as thieves, I assumed they were family. And she's a dead ringer for a Halliwell, reminded me quite a bit of your sisters at that age."

"You knew my sisters?" Paige asked, it was her turn to be surprised.

Mrs. Henderson smiled, "Yes, I worked here at magic school when they attended. I took a break for a while, but what can I say? I missed working with the little ones."

"They never told me they'd attended magic school," Paige replied, suspicious of this claim. She knew their powers were only unbounded after Grams had died, and even then they had seemed genuinely surprised when they found out about the existence of magic school.

"Oh they probably don't remember it, they were quite young," Mrs. Henderson nodded, "Only Prue and Piper attended. Your Grams was a big advocate for magic school and was very involved, but after Phoebe was born, their powers were bound for their safety and they were subsequently pulled from magic school. I'll admit I was a bit disappointed, they showed so much potential with their powers, even at such a young age. Then again, I don't have to look far to see all that you and your sisters have been able to accomplish."

While Mrs. Henderson didn't know the full story, Paige had been filled in by her sisters. Since the warlock Nicholas had tricked Patty, their mother, into blessing his ring so he could steal the powers of the Charmed Ones, their powers were bound as soon as Phoebe was born and it had been decided they would be raised mortal for their safety. Knowing all they did now, it would've been more surprising if magic school hadn't been considered before this incident, given how eager Grams was initially to be raising the girls in magic despite protests from Victor. Their attendance was actually how Gideon had first met the Charmed Ones, as he had mentioned upon seeing them again when they first re-discovered Magic School.

"You know, the gift of premonitions is very rare and powerful," Mrs. Henderson remarked, changing subjects and bringing the focus back to Trixie, "Do you know what family line Trixie is from?"

"No, we just know her mother is a powerful good witch," Paige stated, "Does her gift of premonitions narrow down what witch line she may belong to?"

"While there's no rule for children only developing powers their ancestors possessed, most powers as great as premonition do tend to appear along the same family lines" Mrs. Henderson explained, "If I had to guess solely based on power and appearance, I'd place Trixie in either the Warren, Marks, or McNeal family lines."

While Mrs. Henderson ran off to calm down a couple children who had grown fussy, Paige considered what she had suggested. Was there any possibility Trixie was indeed a Warren witch? She looked over at Trixie as she considered it, and honestly, she could see it. The little girl with the straight brown hair, rosy complexion, and button nose could have come straight from the Halliwell family photo album. But that was impossible, right? Herself, Phoebe, Piper, and of course Piper's boys, were the only living members of their line as far as she knew. So she tried to brush it aside as she began to work with Trixie one on one, to find out the actual truth. Still, it never left the back of her mind and she couldn't help but wonder, what if?

Then, when all she learned from Trixie was that she was three, her parent's names were mama and papa, and she knew her colors and shapes, which she was happy to demonstrate, Paige decided she needed a different approach. So she took a shot in the dark and with a swab of Trixie's saliva performed a magical DNA test in the potions lab. The test required a comparative sample, she figured she could test against her own now, since this was the first time she was using the test, and, when that showed negative results, she could go about getting DNA samples from members of the Marks and McNeal families. Though she was not looking forward to another possible run-in with Simon Marks. But, if neither of those worked, well, then they could figure out what to do from there. At least it would narrow down the field a little.

You can imagine her surprise when the first test came out positive.

 _ **Storybrooke, ME**_

Even after hours of research, the only conclusions Patience had come to was that it wasn't a werewolf or wendigo. That night was neither a full moon nor the night following or preceding it, which are the only times those creatures are active, according to any source she could find. Which was a really good thing too, a bite from either of those would be a life sentence.

Other than that she had made a list of potential creatures, including hellhound, shadow wolf, or even, simply, demon dog. All sources came with conflicting results, some were far off, some came super close, but none exactly fit or felt quite right. She was just about ready to give in and switch gears to the specter when she was interrupted.

"Patience! I've been looking all over for you!" Henry greeted, taking the seat across from her. Placing his fairytale book on the table along with a notebook.

"Must've been looking in all the wrong places," Patience joked, "What can I do for you, Henry?"

"Well, I was looking through the book like you asked me to. I have a few ideas but I need to ask a couple questions," Henry explained happily, "A lot of people's lives here are reflected from who they were in the Enchanted Forest."

"Alright sounds good, ask away," Patience assured, not quite sure what to expect.

"Do you have a stepmom or any step-siblings?" Henry asked.

"No," Patience smiled, catching on, she was no Cinderella, "I don't have any siblings, and I was raised by my grandmother."

"In a cottage in the woods?" Henry wondered, taking notes. Was that Sleeping Beauty?

"No Henry, in a cozy New York City apartment," Patience asserted.

"Oh ok. What happened to your parents?" Henry asked.

"They passed away when I was very young, I don't remember them much," Patience stated after some consideration, she really couldn't remember anything, had she ever known her parents?

Henry pursed his lips in apparent deep thought and nodded as he continued to write. Patience admired his dedication.

"Interesting," he replied, then looked up, "Any other family I should know about?"

"Well, Mr. Gold is my uncle," Patience reminded him, "Other than that, no, no one I can think of."

"What about your spouse?" Henry asked, catching Patience a bit off-guard, she didn't think Henry even knew she had been married.

"Wait, Henry, how did you know I was -?" Patience began to ask.

"Your ring," Henry pointed out the ever-present ring Patience wore on her left hand, her ring finger. At this, she fiddled with it fondly.

"You do know Henry, a ring doesn't always mean someone is married," Patience clarified.

"But that one does, right?" Henry pushed.

"Yes, you are right," Patience agreed with a small smile, "I was married, to a wonderful man. He was my high school sweetheart. But he's passed away."

"How come you never talk about him?" Henry asked.

"Well, it happened before I came to Storybrooke," Patience explained, frowning as the memories resurfaced, "There was an accident, a car accident. It's not really one of my favorite subjects to talk about."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Henry apologized.

"Oh no Henry, it's ok," Patience reassured, "It was quite some time ago."

Since she had lived in Storybrooke at least as long as Henry, it must've been at least a decade. And, if she was being honest, she really didn't remember her time before Storybrooke that well. The memories were there, but they were fuzzy, was that normal? She didn't feel bound to that past in any way, and yet she hadn't taken off the ring. She couldn't, though she didn't quite understand why, it just felt wrong.

"I only have one more question," Henry assured, "Have you noticed anything different these past few days?"

"Well, besides the clocktower working and the whole John Doe thing, no. It's pretty much been business as usual" Patience replied, it was a lie but she could be pretty convincing, there was no doubt in her mind that dragging Henry into the new weird magical stuff in her life would only lead to danger and trouble for him, "Any leads so far?"

"Nothing yet, but if the answer is in this book, I will find it. I promise," Henry stated.

"Thank you, Henry, see you around," Patience replied as Henry headed out.

Minor existential crisis forgotten, Henry's last statement had given her an idea. The book, that was the answer! Well, not his fairytale book, the book from her dreams: the Book of Shadows!

The Book of Shadows had held information on tons of terrifying creatures, beasts, and demons, why not the two she had encountered? Not knowing how to get to the actual book, she took out the journal with the spells and looked through it thoroughly. As she suspected, there was no information on the creatures she had seen, but she did come across quite a few protection spells that would be great for her apartment, she marked these pages.

Patience couldn't exactly wait until night to see if she did have that dream again, she didn't know what would trigger it. She hadn't had it the previous night. Still, her memories of that attic, that book, were fairly fresh and so she closed her eyes and concentrated, hoping maybe she could remember something useful. She put herself back there, back in the moment, imagined being back in that attic … and when she opened her eyes, she was. That is, she was physically back in the attic!

This time, unlike the others, sunlight poured through the windows. At any previous moment in time, Patience would've been put off by the dramatic scene shift, but right now she had more important things to worry about. She walked right up to the Book of Shadows sitting on the podium. Now, nothing could stand in the way of getting what she needed.

 _ **San Francisco, CA**_

Having scried with the necklace and looked through the book to no avail, Phoebe and Piper currently stood in the kitchen debating the next course of action.

"What are you making?" Phoebe asked Piper, she was currently tossing some seemingly random ingredients into a pot.

"Just keeping my hands busy," Piper replied, then she looked over at Phoebe who was pacing the kitchen, "Are you okay? Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't look so good."

"Yeah, I'm fine, just been a bit restless these past couple nights," Phoebe admitted.

"Coop have anything to do with it?" Piper suggested wryly.

"No," Phoebe dismissed, but smiled at the thought, "Coop has been pretty busy lately, after he solved my love problems, his bosses gave him a new assignment, like a normal cupid assignment."

"Are you okay with that?" Piper asked, concerned.

"Yeah, of course, he's always available for me if I need him, and we have a date planned later this week," Phoebe replied, there were absolutely no problems with her love life for once, she was dating a cupid after all. Coop had originally been assigned to help her find love, but it wasn't long before the two fell for each other. Normally this was forbidden, but apparently, the Elders were playing matchmaker in this case so they wouldn't reinforce that rule. In fact, Phoebe already knew this was the man she was going to marry, thanks to a slip-up from her nephew from the future. So since the ultimate battle, they had been getting into a serious relationship, going on real dates and learning about each other, and Phoebe couldn't be happier in that department. Her thoughts, however, were not on this at the moment.

"I'm worried about Trixie," Phoebe redirected, "How are we going to figure out what demon is after her? We can't just wait around for another attack, Trixie might see it coming but another premonition just might traumatize the kid."

"I was just thinking, maybe we need to use some demon contacts, Nomed wasn't it? That Tracer was definitely not cream of the crop, whoever's attempting to get Trixie is probably attempting some kind of play for power in the Underworld. So, they might be willing to give us some information," Piper suggested. Working with demons was not their favorite course of action, but they had been known to do so in the past.

Phoebe tried to think, look at the situation from all angles. Really, where can they go from here? She played with the necklace Trixie had given her in her pocket. Suddenly, she was pulled into a premonition. A vision of the past, eight years ago. She was pulled back to that stormy night she had first found the Book of Shadows and unbounded their powers. She saw that ouija board as it spelled out "a-t-t-i-c". And that was it.

"We have to go to the attic," Phoebe declared and stood without explanation. Piper knew the signs, she knew Phoebe had had a premonition, and so she didn't ask questions, she led the way.

When they came to the closed attic door, Piper looked to Phoebe. Neither knew necessarily what they would find, but this close they could hear someone, or something, was in there. Phoebe could feel their presence: relief, intrigue, nothing threatening, so she nodded to Piper. Piper then eased open the door … and they will never forget what they saw.

For a single moment, both sisters stood still in shock. There in plain sight at the podium stood their eldest sister, who had been dead for five years. She wasn't transparent, there was no glow surrounding her - absolutely no indication that she was a spirit. This was the very same sister they'd never been able to summon, despite numerous efforts. And now, unaware of their presence, she was simply reading the Book of Shadows. It was all too familiar, as if nothing had changed and no time had passed.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. She appeared slightly different than they had remembered her. For instance, her hair was longer and the clothes she wore were unrecognizable from her wardrobe as they knew it.

"Prue?!" Piper called out, unable to control her shock. Without even looking their way, Prue gasped and disappeared. Not in a ghostly way, in a red haze, like an astral projection.

"You saw that right?" Piper asked, Phoebe nodded, and the two headed to the book. It was turned to the page describing the demon Charon.

"Piper, there's something I need to tell you," Phoebe said. Her fears confirmed, it was time to fill Piper in.

Phoebe told Piper all she knew. Her premonitions, her suspicions on what it all meant, and what Paige had learned from the elders. She even told her about her dreams, what she could remember at least. She understood it was a lot to take in, so once she finished she waited patiently for Piper to respond. She didn't need the power of empathy to know Piper was going through a whirlwind of emotions, she'd gone through and was going through most of them herself.

For Piper, seeing Prue had brought up a whole well of emotions she didn't even know how to begin to understand or deal with. All she had wanted was to see her sister, to know she was okay, but she had never really seriously entertained the idea that she wasn't. Now she had seen her, actually seen her, and Phoebe was telling her all this new information. Everything she'd thought she knew was coming into question. She wanted to be sad, she wanted to be mad, but, mostly, she wanted answers.

"Phoebe, why didn't you tell me sooner?" Piper asked ultimately.

"I'm so very sorry Piper. I only got the premonition a couple days ago and honestly, I was worried it was some kind of trick … but after what just happened I know it wasn't. I didn't want to put you through this for no reason, I wanted to figure out what was going on first … and, of course, I still haven't," Phoebe attempted to explain, "When Darien and Trixie came along, well, everything just kinda got put on hold … Are you mad at me Piper? Cause you have every right to be…"

Surprising both sisters, Piper pulled Phoebe into a hug.

"No, I'm not mad at you Pheebs, you were just doing what you thought was best for me," Piper replied, she saw in Phoebe's eyes as she babbled how hard this must be on her as well, and instead of feeling angry she felt guilty Phoebe had thought she couldn't come to her, "We're going to figure this out, together."

The sisters each wiped away the tears that had begun to well up in their eyes and silently read the entry for Charon. Phoebe recalled the last time they had dealt with her, but this was new to Piper, who had been away for work at the time. Charon ferries souls to hell and prizes those of good witches. She works on the spiritual plane, which means there isn't a way for them to fight her while alive but at the same time she's not a threat to them while they're living. While she did have the power of necrokinesis, the ability to cause instant death, which Phoebe had seen her use on the security guard at Alcatraz, she couldn't take those souls to hell. She can't take souls by force, not by herself anyways.

"So Charon wanted Prue but she didn't get her, and now she's after her again. But why now? Why five years later?" Phoebe asked, not quite expecting Piper to know the answer.

"Let's start at the beginning, okay?" Piper thought aloud, "Something must've happened to Prue's soul that day. Charon didn't get her, but she didn't go with the Angel of Death either. You didn't even see her soul leave her body, but still, Leo couldn't heal her. There's something we're missing. Phoebe, maybe there's still more your premonition was trying to tell you. Your dreams, maybe they're trying to tell you something about what actually happened to Prue's soul."

Phoebe shivered at the thought of things in her dreams being real, "You're right, I need another premonition. And I think I know how to get it."

Phoebe grabbed Piper's hand and lead her downstairs. This would be the third time she called this premonition, and if she was going to get even more than the last time she was going to have to harness as much psychological energy as possible. So, following Piper's unintentional suggestion, she went to the place it all began. She walked up to the wall Shax had thrown her sister through, braced herself, and put her free hand up against it. Then she closed her eyes, and she focused on Prue and her previous vision.

Sure enough, it worked.

Phoebe watched closely as the events played out as usual, hardening herself to the scene the third time around because she knew deep down this was something that couldn't be changed. Something that just is, that she was just there to observe. It followed her last vision to a tee up until about the time Charon appeared. Time stopped, or rather it slowed to an infinitesimal rate, evidenced by the stillness of the flames that marked Charon's entrance, because what happened next happened so quickly it went unnoticed by all present.

A portal opened, a swirling vortex, just beneath Prue, and she was pulled in. Then the portal closed and almost immediately, she appeared once more in a red haze, or that is, her astral projection did.

The scene then shifted to a wide, dark, chilling room, and Prue was lying on a wooden table in the center of it. A strange man, with scaly skin and an almost reptilian look to him, stood over her. Impossibly, he pulled out her heart, it was still beating and had a faint glow to it, he smiled. Then he waved his hand over her, it was glowing a dark purple. As he did this, any open wounds closed and the heart's glow became brighter, beat stronger and Phoebe realized he was healing her.

The view shifted slightly, it was the same room but now the man was gone. Then Phoebe saw Prue open her eyes and take a deep breath.

Phoebe caught her own breath coming out of the vision, "This changes … everything."

"What? What did you see?" Piper asked.

And Phoebe told her, all of it.

"He must've taken her somewhere, another world, maybe? Where not even the Elders would be able to sense her and we were separated enough that the power of three was severed," Phoebe concluded. They'd known little about the existence of other worlds up until recently, but it was the only thing that made sense. If she had merely been on another plane or somewhere in the Underworld, Leo wouldn't have been fooled by an astral projection, he would've known she was alive somewhere, and they wouldn't have had to reconstitute the power of three with Paige.

"And she's been trapped there, all this time," Piper sighed, "But she must've escaped, made her way back somehow, probably around the time you got the first premonition."

"And now Charon has found her," Phoebe added, "It won't be long before other demons figure it out and she'd become a big target. We have to find her."

"But she's avoiding us. What if she thinks we abandoned her? What if she doesn't want to see us, Phoebe," then Piper recalled, "Wait, not last night, but the couple nights before, I noticed the book had been moved and it seemed like someone had been in the attic. You don't think it could be -?"

"Piper, it must have been her! Her astral projection, remember, it had acted on her inner desires before, while she was sleeping," Phoebe was excited to hear this news because it meant one thing, "She wants to return here, to us."

"But something's stopping her. Let's go back to magic school, fill in Leo and Paige," Piper stated, "We've gotta get to the bottom of this."

 _ **Storybrooke, ME**_

"Patience? Patience, are you alright?"

At once Patience was back in the diner, face to face with a very concerned Ruby.

"Ruby, yeah, I'm fine," Patience replied, reorienting herself. Had she really not left the diner? It had felt so real.

"Are you sure? Because I have been trying to get your attention for the past 10 minutes, you seemed so out of it," Ruby explained, probably exaggerating but Patience couldn't be sure, "Would you like some more coffee?"

"No thanks Ruby, I'm positive, I'm good," Patience reassured, "I've just been … thinking. Actually, I'm just wrapping up here, I will be heading out soon."

"Good, tell the outside world hello for me," Ruby joked, and she got back to work.

Patience was excited, the Book of Shadows had given her exactly the answer she was looking for. The demon-wolf-thing was a cerberus demon. They're basically domesticated beasts of the underworld used for their knack for tracking down souls. The passage in the book described them as lower-level, and also provided a spell and potion that could be used to vanquish one. Patience wrote down the spell and potion ingredients, and all that she could remember from the passage, before she could forget it. She'd also been able to identify the specter: a demon known as Charon. Apparently, Greek mythology was a lot more spot on than she had previously thought. She learned Charon is a soul collector, she quite literally ferries souls to hell. And she prizes the souls of good witches, which Patience figured must be why Charon had sent the cerberus after her. Confirming for her that she was, in fact, a good witch. There was no way to vanquish Charon, but if she really wanted Patience's soul then she wasn't a threat to her alone. If caught in the same situation as last night, Patience would only need to fight the cerberus demon. She still didn't quite understand why Charon had let her go for the time being, but she wasn't going to be caught off guard if this happened again. She had some shopping to do.

She gathered up her things and left the diner. She had to travel around town quite a bit to get what she needed, including the grocery store, the flower shop, and a final stop at Mr. Gold's pawn shop, he always seemed to have what she needed. When she agreed the tea had helped her get some sleep, Gold prepared some for her and gave her a good supply of it to take home.

Patience, of course, didn't know it at the time, but the herbal mix he had put together was the reason she had not visited the manor the previous night, and wouldn't this night either. It didn't bind her powers, but it did keep her subconscious in check, making it easier for her to sleep but harder for her sisters to find her.

When Patience did get home that evening, the first thing she did was set up protection around her apartment using a spell, crystals, and some salt. Then she prepared the vanquishing potion for a cerberus demon. Finally, she was able to settle in for a restful night's sleep.

 _ **Magic School**_

"You guys will never believe what we found out," Paige entered the library at the time they agreed to meet, with Chris in her arms and Trixie and Wyatt in tow.

"Oh no, I think this time we have the more unbelievable news," Piper countered, entering at the same time with Phoebe. Trixie smiled when she saw Phoebe and ran to her, gesturing to be picked up and Phoebe happily obliged.

"I find that doubtful, but I like your moxie," Paige acknowledged, "Get this, I discovered something very interesting about our little Key. Trixie is a Warren witch!"

That's when the truth, the full truth, really hit Phoebe and Piper and they shared a knowing look. Prue was taken to another world. Darien and Trixie had come from another world. They had known Trixie's mother was a good witch and now Paige was telling them she was a Warren witch, it couldn't just be a coincidence. There was a reason all of this was happening at once.

"Now, I know what you're probably thinking, but I did a magical DNA test ... quite a few times in fact. Comparing mine to hers showed that she was part of the same family line. And, honestly, the more I think about it, it makes sense," Paige explained, mistaking their reaction for the doubt she'd expected, "That could be why she had a vision of us, why they knew where to find us, why she's been so comfortable with us, even why she became my charge in the first place. I mean, the Warren family line goes pretty far back, it's not really that implausible that we'd have some distant cousins we didn't know about, right?

"Sorry, I'm rambling, what's your news?" Paige asked, when she noticed her sisters' silence and concerning looks.

"Paige, we learned that Prue's still alive, she was taken somewhere, probably another world. We didn't know where, but now we do," Piper revealed, "We're not looking for some distant cousin."

"Wait, do you really mean -?" Paige began.

"Yes," Phoebe looked at the little girl in her arms with new eyes, "Trixie isn't just a Warren witch, she's our niece."


End file.
